


Heritage

by bansheequeen (queenbanshee), xtremeroswellian



Category: Smallville
Genre: Australia, Averting the apocalypse, F/M, Friendship, Getting to Know Each Other, Kidnapping someone for their own good, Reincarnation, Time Travel, Veritas - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 36,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24083866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbanshee/pseuds/bansheequeen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtremeroswellian/pseuds/xtremeroswellian
Summary: Oliver stops Brainiac from affecting Chloe and changes their destinies, leading them to find out a lot more about themselves.
Relationships: Chloe Sullivan & Clark Kent, Oliver Queen/Chloe Sullivan
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

  


Her heart was racing and her eyes were wide as she backed up into a corner. She knew she couldn't call for Clark or he would hurt _him_ , she couldn't call for anyone and there was really nothing she could do anymore since the kryptonite hadn't worked. As Brainiac's hands turned into black, metallic looking tentacles, she gasped.

But a second later, they were attached to her head and even as she felt weaker, she distantly heard herself screaming loudly in pain.

A second after _that_ , the door burst open and three arrows lodged themselves into Brainiac's face.

Chloe saw a faint glow surrounding her right before her eyes closed and she hit the floor, unconscious.

Brainiac screamed, turning into liquid matter a second later and sliding from under the apartment door.

In three steps, Oliver was across the room, crossbow secured on his back once more as he knelt down at Chloe's side, gently brushing the hair back from her face, his eyes wide with worry. "Chloe?" When she didn't answer, he carefully lifted her into arms, cradling her against his chest and rising to his feet once more. His heart was beating quickly in his chest. Had he gotten there fast enough? Was it already too late? he wondered, staring down at her for a long moment. 

He forced himself to take a deep breath, and shook his head a little. He had to get her out of there, and quickly. And as much as it worried him that she was unconscious, he knew it would probably be easier because of it. Shifting her in his arms, he carried her out the door and down the stairs, glad that the Talon was closed. At least something was working in his favor. 

Halfway down the stairs, Chloe shifted in his arms and groaned quietly but didn't open her eyes.

"Shh," he murmured, heading out the front door and to his car, his heart still beating quickly. What he was about to do was criminal. A _felony._ And sure, he'd broken a lot of laws over the years, but he'd never done what he was about to do to someone he worked with or called _friend_.

Lois was going to kill him.

_Clark_ would kill him for sure.

And Chloe might never forgive him.

But he had no choice. He carefully opened his car door and laid her down in the backseat, staring at her for a moment before moving to get in the driver's seat.

He could only hope that he wasn't already too late.


	2. Chapter 2

  


Oliver was half asleep in his seat when the airplane hit turbulence. He woke, startled and only half-aware of what was going on for a moment. Then his chest tightened as he remembered. He quickly unbuckled his safety belt and moved toward the back of the plane, pausing at the curtain as he pulled it back to look where Chloe lay on the bed.

There was another, harder bump and she gasped, her eyes wide open a second later as she sat up, wincing instantly and lifting a hand to her head.

"Easy," he said quietly, not wanting to scare her. He drew in a breath and moved closer to the bed. "How's your head?"

Chloe jumped slightly regardless and stared at him for a moment before blinking, "Oliver?" She frowned, looking around, "where are we? What's going on?"

He reached out and picked up a bottle of water from the mini-fridge by the bed. "It's kind of a long story. So, why don't we start by you taking a drink?"

She stared at him even as he moved around, "Brainiac," she said, blinking, "he looked like Kara, he was at the Talon, I need to warn Cla--" she paused, "are we on your jet?"

He sighed very softly, then nodded. "Yeah. We are."

"Why?" Chloe frowned, shaking his head, "Oliver, what is going on?"

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face and hesitantly sat down on the edge of the bed. He felt liked he'd aged five years in the last forty-eight hours. "Okay, I know this is going to sound completely absurd..."

She shifted and arched her eyebrows, "my best friend is an alien, Oliver, not much sounds absurd to me." She pointed out, sipping on the water he had handed her.

A small smile touched his mouth. "Touche," he said quietly, exhaling slowly. "What do you know about time travel?"

Cocking her head a little, she shook her head, "nothing, well, other than the popular theories by sci-fi fanatics, why?"

He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Because yesterday I had an unexpected visitor show up at my penthouse in Star City."

She held her breath at that, searching his eyes, "okay?"

"It was me. Except...older." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

Stilling, Chloe blinked a couple of times, "well, there goes that theory about the world imploding if you meet another version of yourself. What happened?"

He pursed his lips, looking up at her. "He said I needed to get to Smallville and get you out of there."

At that, she frowned some more, "why?"

"Brainiac." He hesitated.

"But he didn't hurt me," she pointed out, "well, I have a headache, but that's it."

"He would have." He gazed at her intently.

"Why?" She asked, asking her head, "and why didn't he?"

"Because he wanted to use you as a sort of...vessel," he said, hesitating a moment. "And he didn't because I sort of shot him in the face with three arrows filled with Kryptonite."

Chloe blinked a couple of times and stared at Oliver for a moment then sat up, her head pounding more, "he wanted _me_ for his vessel? Why?"

He exhaled slowly. "Because you're close to Clark."

"He told you all this?" Chloe asked quietly, watching him closely.

Oliver nodded a little.

"What else did he say?" She asked, chewing on the inside of her lip.

He sighed softly, rubbing a hand over his face. "You should rest for awhile, Chloe."

"Oliver," she pressed, standing up and wincing slightly as she felt like the back of her head was about to explode, "you just kidnapped me and you're flying me to some undisclosed location, I think the least you can do is tell me why you're doing this."

He chewed the inside of his lip for a moment, watching her. "Because he said if I didn't, a lot of really bad things were going to happen."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, "and he didn't give you any kind of examples?"

"Yeah, he did," he said, looking away.

"What are they?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she took a step forward once more, her stomach tight. Something was obviously not right.

He shut his eyes. "A few hundred people dying. Lois vanishing. Clark turning his back on all of us." He paused. "The end of the world."

"Oh..." she whispered, staring at Oliver for a moment before dropping her arms to her sides and sitting back down on the bed slowly, "and it would all happen because of me?"

"No," he said immediately, turning to look at her once more and shaking his head. "Because of _Brainiac_." He hesitated. "And because of a man named Davis Bloome."

"Who is he?" She asked, holding her breath and watching Oliver closely.

"Another Kryptonian," he said softly.

Chloe sighed deeply at that and rubbed her hands over her face, "we need to tell Clark."

"I left him a voicemail."

She frowned a little and slowly turned to look at Oliver, "and where are you taking me?"

"Australia," he said quietly.

"What? Why? What is in Australia?" Chloe asked, her eyes widening.

"It's a nice place to be," he said cautiously, watching her closely. "It's warm, and people are friendly. There's a lot less crime."

"Oliver." She said sharply, "you know what's going on and apparently I'm involved in all of it, we need to _stop_ it, not hide."

"We can't," he said simply.

" _Why_ not?" She asked, watching him closely.

"Because the only way _to_ stop it is to get you away from it."

Chloe watched him closely for a long moment then took a deep breath and looked down at her water bottle before sipping on it. Obviously there was a lot he wasn't willing to tell her just yet, but if her not being around was the key to stopping the world from ending, she really had no choice but to think that regardless of what he was telling her, _she_ was responsible for it.

"Chloe, I know that we don't really know each other _that_ well," he said quietly. "But you're not going to be alone."

"Maybe I should be," she said almost instantly then turned to look at him.

"No, you shouldn't." He shook his head a little.

Chloe paused and looked at him for a moment then sighed softly. She had no choice but to listen to him until he was willing to let her know details.

"I am sorry for kidnapping you like this." His voice was quiet.

"I guess you can't ignore your own older self's requests." She said just as quietly and sighed, sipping on her water once more.

Oliver sighed and sat down beside her on the edge of the bed.

Chloe eyed him for a moment and took a deep breath, "I'm sure this isn't easy on you."

He shrugged a little. "It's not the end of the world."

"Let's hope it stays that way," she added, arching her eyebrows a little.

He nodded a little, offering her a small smile. "It'll be fine," he told her.

Chloe watched him for a long moment then nodded slightly, "do you happen to have any aspirin?"

"Yeah, I do." He nodded a little.

She nodded slightly and took a deep breath, "how much longer do we have before we get there?"

"A few hours," he admitted. "Why don't I get you some aspirin and you can rest?"

Chloe looked at him for a long moment then nodded, "okay," she agreed, "but I will want answers, Oliver." She added quietly, holding his gaze.

"I know." He nodded slightly, as well, and slowly rose to his feet.

"Where is the aspirin?" She asked, getting up too.

"I'll get it," he assured her.

"Thank you," she told him quietly, keeping her eyes on him.

The irony of it wasn't about to escape him. He had kidnapped her and she was _thanking_ him. He just nodded a little, not quite managing a smile before heading away to get the pain killers.

Chloe sighed softly and sat back down but kept her eyes on him, she wasn't sure sleeping was going to be an option considering all the theories that were going on in her head.

* * *

The next time Chloe woke up, it was because Oliver was calling her. Healing did usually take up a lot of her energy and since she had, somehow, used her power to fight Brainiac, it made sense that she would be tired, tired enough to actually fall asleep once again after her head wasn't hurting as much.

"Are we there?" She asked groggily as she opened her eyes and sat up slightly.

"Yeah." He sat down beside her on the edge of the bed, his eyes filled with concern. "How's your head? How are you feeling?"

"Okay," she nodded slightly, sitting up as she looked at him, remembering all of the things he had told her and momentarily wondering if she had dreamed the whole thing.

"Really? Better now?" He watched her closely.

"Yeah, my head isn't hurting anymore, I guess my power took care of it finally." She said quietly, keeping her eyes on him as she tried to read him, she still had no idea what he was keeping from her, but before she fell asleep, she had formulated a plan, kind of one anyway.

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah, about that." He chewed the inside of his cheek. "I must have missed the memo." His tone wasn't accusing, simply curious.

Chloe paused and stared at him for a moment, her eyes widening slightly, "oh, right..."

"I'm not upset," he assured her, offering her a small smile. "I'm sure you had your reasons."

"I wasn't exactly celebrating it," she admitted, adjusting her top and shifting on the bed.

"You were scared?" Oliver asked quietly.

Chloe pursed her lips together and nodded a little, shrugging, "yeah. I just wasn't sure what was going to happen when I did get my power, or what it would be."

"And now that you have?"

"At least I know that I can't hurt anyone with it," she said sincerely, but didn't look at him.

Oliver held his breath for a moment, then hesitantly reached out and touched her shoulder wordlessly.

Chloe paused and looked at him after a moment, surprised by the gesture. She and Oliver had been working together for a little over a year, but not often and even when they did, it was far from personal.

He met her eyes. "You wouldn't have hurt anyone intentionally, even if your power had been different." There was confidence in his voice.

She looked at him then shook her head slightly, shifting once more and placing her feet on the floor of the plane, "it doesn't work that way with meteor infection, Oliver."

He didn't agree with that, but it was a moot point anyway. He rose to his feet and held his hand out to help her up.

Chloe took the offered hand reluctantly then stood up, "so why Australia?" She asked, picking up the jacket she had taken off before looking at him again.

"Well, it's beautiful here. And warm. And I didn't figure you'd been here before." He raised his eyebrows a little, looking at her questioningly.

She cocked her head a little and gave him a puzzled look, "oh." She wasn't sure what to say to that considering she had no idea Oliver would actually care about where she'd been to before and where she hadn't.

"Have you been here before?" he asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortably uncertain. And Oliver wasn't used to feeling uncomfortable _or_ uncertain.

"No," she admitted, "never really been anywhere other than Canada that one time I borrowed your jet."

"Oh." He nodded a little. "Well, uh, Australia's pretty far from Canada. And not just distance-wise."

"I figured," she said, glancing at one of the plane windows, still not sure what to think about all of this, "do you come here often?"

A mysterious smile quirked his mouth upward. "You could say that."

"And how often is often for a billionaire to travel across the world?" She asked, glancing at him, she felt like she should be picking up her suitcase of something but she hadn't exactly packed.

"When I need to escape for awhile," he confessed.

"I assume you own property here?" She asked glancing toward the door when she saw the pilot coming out the cockpit to open it.

Oliver nodded a little. "Yeah." Quite a bit of it. But she didn't need to know that yet. He nodded at his pilot.

"The car's ready to go, Mr. Queen," he told Oliver.

Chloe held her breath and turned to look at the pilot again, smiling a little at him, she couldn't help but wonder what Oliver had told the guy, if anything.

"Thanks, Dennis," he said with a smile and another nod before looking at Chloe. "Ready to get out of here?"

"Yeah," she told him, smiling back at him and choosing to just go along with it until they were alone again.

He nodded and led the way toward the front of the plane. He knew she had a ton of questions she was dying to ask.

She wasted no time in making her way out of the plane and into the waiting car outside, the sooner they got to whatever place Oliver was taking her, the sooner she could push for answers.


	3. Chapter 3

  
  


Chloe was pretty sure her mouth had dropped to the floor. The house was _huge_ , two stories, the back was facing the ocean and there were two pools, one inside and one outside. The back of it was almost entirely made of glass so you could see the ocean from most rooms. And she hadn't even seen the second floor yet, "this place is amazing," she admitted. She had only ever seen Oliver's Clocktower apartment so she hadn't really been sure of what to expect this time, but apparently it wasn't anywhere nearly as minimalistic as the Clocktower.

He smiled, glancing at her sideways. "And you haven't even had the full tour," he said lightly.

"There is a private beach, Oliver," she said, glancing up at him from where she stood by the glass sliding doors, "I don't think you can top that."

He arched an eyebrow, considering it. "We'll see."

"Alright," she turned toward him, "go ahead and try."

Oliver chuckled softly at the challenge in her voice. "Follow me." He winked at her and then turned, heading for the spiral staircase that led to the second floor of the house.

Chloe arched her eyebrows and followed him quietly, still looking around the house, "it's also huge."

"Too huge?" he asked uncertainly.

"Well, if you're having like twenty people over for vacation..." she said, smirking slightly. She still didn't have her answers, but she was rested now and she did trust Oliver enough to at least allow him to take the lead for now.

He winced a little. "The team comes here sometimes if they're in the area," he told her, not wanting her to think the extravagant house was _all_ for himself.

"Yeah, I can definitely see that," she said, not really noticing his discomfort.

"You can?" His eyebrows furrowed a little as he led her up the rest of the steps.

"Well, yeah, especially Bart since it's so easy for him to be in the area," she told him, "although with all the water, AC probably appreciates it the most?"

"AC does tend to spend the most time here," he agreed, glancing at her sideways and leading the way across the hallway and opening a door to reveal a huge room filled with computer equipment.

Chloe stilled when she saw all of the screens and the computers, her eyes widening as she slowly inched forward, "wow..."

He couldn't help but grin at the expression on her face. "More amazing?" he teased.

"Well, that's subjective," she said, glancing quickly at him before making her way to one of the stations, "from my point of view, yes."

"I thought you might think so," he told her with a smirk, leaning against the doorframe. He folded his arms across his chest, his eyes bright.

It took her a long moment of exploring and touching the equipment before she paid attention to him again, "so why did you build this?"

"Well, I have property in a lot of countries. I never know where the work's going to take me." He paused. "And I never know when someone else may need a place, either."

She turned fully to face him once again, "are you trying to tell me that you have places equipped like this all over the world?"

Oliver raised his eyebrows a little, but didn't respond.

"And yet, you're making me work off of my laptop at home and the Planet database?" She asked, a smirk forming on her lips.

"Well, if you'd told me you'd rather be a more upgraded place in say _Paris_ , I would've happily flown you there." He smirked back at her.

"Paris isn't my base," she pointed out. "I'm more concerned about Metropolis."

"You _do_ have access to the clock tower," he pointed out back.

"Well, that's _your_ place, though. I'm not going to just be there when I need to work and you have company over or something..."

"Chloe, I've been back in Star City full time for nearly a year."

"Its still your place, Oliver," she told him, "but I guess it doesn't matter for now."

He watched her for a moment. "No, for now it doesn't," he agreed quietly. "But you do have a point."

She nodded slightly then paused, shrugging. "not like I can use the Planet anymore anyway."

Oliver hesitated. "Chloe, it might be awhile before you get back to Kansas. You know that, right?" His voice was quiet, but worried.

"Right now," she said, taking a deep breath, "I don't know much about anything, Oliver."

He looked down, then reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right," he said softly, stepping farther into the room and sitting down in one of the chairs.

"So why don't you start cluing me in on what we're supposed to be fighting against?" She asked, arching her eyebrows as she walked over to him.

"We're not," he told her, looking up at her.

Chloe paused and stared at him, "excuse me?"

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. " _We're_ not supposed to be fighting against anything. Not this time."

"So you want to let the others handle all of... whatever this is on their own while you and I work on a tan? Oliver, do you even realize what you're saying?"

He pursed his lips and nodded a little. "I know how it sounds," he admitted.

"Then you know I can't agree to it," she told him, her expression turning blank.

Oliver rose to his feet, shaking his head. "It's not a choice."

"What are you going to do? Lock me up in here?"

He looked away. "I hope it doesn't come to that," he said honestly.

"But you will if it does." It wasn't a question.

He turned to look at her once more. "Chloe, the fate of the entire _world_ pretty much depends on you and I sitting this one out."

"So you keep telling me," she said blankly, "except you can't seem to be able to explain to me _why_."

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face, silently debating for a moment. Then he nodded at the chair she'd abandoned. "All right. Sit."

Chloe stared at him for a long moment then sat back down but remained silent. The room was mostly dark if not for the light of the monitors, so she couldn't watch him as closely as she'd have liked, but she would take it.

He sat down again, as well, a few feet away from her, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded together. "Brainiac...apparently would have done something to you. Transferred some of his power into you. Your original ability would have been gone, but the new ones...you would have been able to process information a lot faster than you already can."

She frowned slightly at that, "how is that a bad thing?"

He was silent for a few seconds, then shook his head a little. "Jimmy would have proposed to you shortly after Clark destroyed Brainiac." When he said the word, destroyed’ he used air quotes with his fingers.

Chloe stilled at that, her eyes widening once more. She hadn't even _thought_ about Jimmy. "He would have?"

Oliver nodded very slightly, looking down at his hands. "When you'd woken up from the near-death coma you were in from Brainiac's attack," he said softly. "But before you would've had a chance to answer, you would've been captured by some of Lex's thugs claiming they were CIA."

Her stomach tightened instantly at the last part, "why would they want me?"

"Because of your ability," he told her, glancing up at her. "Lex knows about it. He wanted to find out what you could do. How you could be of _use_ to him." His jaw tightened a little.

It was her turn to look down, "wouldn't be the first time."

Oliver's chest tightened. "Meaning what?"

"The reason I found my mom was because Lex kidnapped me for one of his projects, he knew I was infected before I did." She said dryly.

His face paled a little at that. The other Oliver hadn't filled him in on _that_ part. Of course they'd had a limited amount of time. "He had you in one of his labs?"

"Overnight, I wasn't conscious," she told him then shook her head a little, "it doesn't matter, go on."

He forced himself to take a deep breath, raking a hand through his hair. "Lex and Clark both would have vanished for a few weeks. Clark turned up in Russia, apparently. And Lex...I don't know where he was hiding out." He shifted uncomfortably. "I would have gone to get Clark, who had somehow lost his powers. And then we would've hit the only 33.1 facility that the team hadn't already turned upside down looking for you."

"Did you find me?" She asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeah, we did." He paused. "And when we got you back home, you would have said yes to Jimmy. Clark would have gotten his powers back with a little help from J'onn Jones. Lana would have left town. And I would've stuck around."

Chloe frowned slightly at that, not sure how she felt about being engaged to Jimmy, but that wasn't important for now, "that doesn't sound like the apocalypse, so I'm assuming there is more."

"Quite a bit," he said softly, meeting her eyes. "Your new powers would have saved my life after I was poisoned by a man who was after me and..." He paused, looking down again. "Tess Mercer. Who had recently been named as Lex Luthor's appointed successor. They would have enabled you to be the only one who could've found the cure in time." He raised his eyebrows a little. Apparently Chloe saving his life had become a running theme in other Oliver's life. "I would have found out from Tess that Lionel was responsible for my parents' deaths and wasted several months of my life partying and being completely useless."

Her eyes widened a little at that information and she pursed her lips together, "but you're not going to do that anymore, things are already different."

He managed a faint smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, other me basically said to suck it up because there were more important things going on than being angry with Clark for not telling me and acting like a free-loading son of a bitch."

Chloe frowned at that and sat up, "sounds harsh."

"Apparently that's what I need from time to time." He cocked his head to the side a little. "Anyway. Your new ability would have eventually led to you pulling Clark and his cousin out of something called the Phantom Zone, solely using a crystal and your _brain_."

Her eyes widened at that and she stared at him, "I hacked a Kryptonian crystal?" She said then frowning, "because of the Brainiac infection?"

He nodded slightly, leaving out the part about how she'd apparently thrown him one-handed into another room. "Which led to other me confronting other Clark about figuring out how to get you back to normal again." He looked down. "But in the meantime, other things were happening. Murders. People disappearing all over Metropolis."

Her stomach dropped and she stared at him for a moment, her eyes widening as she suddenly dreaded the answer to her next question, "was I doing it?"

"No," he said quickly, shaking his head. "No, it wasn't you. But it was someone you knew. Someone you had been getting close to since you got back from Lex's facility." He held his breath. "Davis Bloome."

Chloe let out her breath and nodded slightly, relaxing but just a little, "right," she said quietly, "who is he, exactly?"

"When Clark's... _ship_ crashed into Earth the day of the first meteor shower, it wasn't the only one. Bloome was raised human, but he wasn't. He was Kryptonian, but a different kind of Kryptonian than Clark." He paused. "He was a monster in paramedic's clothing. He was the one committing the murders during black-outs. And he was obsessed with you." His voice grew quiet.

And with that, she was no longer relaxed, "a kryptonian _monster_?"

"Yes." Oliver watched her. "Called Doomsday."

"And how can he be stopped?" She asked, arching her eyebrows.

"Clark," he said simply, raising his eyebrows as well.

Chloe held his gaze for a long moment, "does he know how to?"

"He will," Oliver said softly. "I've told the others how it was done."

She took a deep breath and stood up, "but things are already different, Oliver. You can't just go with whatever he told you. It will help but it can't be a rule."

"You can't be there, Chloe." His voice was quiet. "I know you want to be, but you _can't_."

"What happens if I am?" She asked bluntly, staring down at him.

Oliver rose to his feet, staring back at her. "You and Clark make the decision to split Doomsday from Davis using black Kryptonite. The beast goes on a rampage through the city, killing hundreds. Lois vanishes somewhere in the chaos. The other me wasn't clear about the specifics. It turns out that Davis' human side is also a vicious monster. He murders Jimmy. Clark loses his faith in humanity. He walks away from you. Away from his human side. The team splits up. You try to pull us back together, but we don't see eye to eye on things after Doomsday." His jaw tightened again. "And General Zod brings an army of Kryptonians to earth while Clark's busy training with good old dad at his fortress. They get their powers by changing our sun into a blood red one--making Clark lose _his_ abilities and then they slaughter most of the people on the planet and enslave the rest."

Her eyes widened slowly as she spoke, now that they were both standing closer to each other, she could see him better than before, "Zod comes _back_? Again?"

Oliver nodded very slightly. "Through some Kryptonian crystal carrying all of their DNA."

"Does it have anything to do with Doomsday?" She asked in a whisper.

"Only in the sense that Doomsday was the catalyst," he said quietly. "And so was Tess Mercer. It was all of the little things that happened that led up to it."

Chloe nodded slightly, "so if Clark has to stop Doomsday, maybe you and I can go after that crystal."

"Bart's already on that one," he told her, raising his eyebrows. "He'll destroy it as soon as he finds it."

She sighed at that and nodded slightly, "so you want to keep me here so I don't try and talk Clark into splitting this Davis guy into two?"

"Clark will probably end up trying to do that on his own," he said softly. "I want to keep you here because I don't want to take any chances with your life. Or Jimmy's." He paused, looking down.

"How can you be sure Jimmy's life won't be in danger?" She asked, watching him closely.

"I can't. Not for sure, anyway. But the only connections that Davis had with Jimmy were you and I."

Chloe pursed her lips together and sighed softly, nodding slightly and chewing on her bottom lip, "and maybe Clark can stop Davis before he hurts anyone."

He nodded, as well. "That's the hope," he admitted.

She turned to look at him once more and nodded, "now how can we make sure it happens?"

"I can only assume that the two of you are on good terms right now?"

"Clark and I?" She frowned at the question, "yeah... why?"

"Because I'm thinking that he might take some of this news better if it comes from you."

Chloe watched him for a long moment, she knew Oliver and Clark didn't really see eye-to-eye on most things, so she could definitely see his point, "okay. I can give it a try."

He nodded a little, gazing back at her. "Can you do me a favor?" His voice dropped a little, and he knew what he was about to ask just might test their working relationship.

She held his gaze and waited, tensing at the serious tone in his voice.

"I need you to not tell Clark where we are."

Letting out her breath, she shook her head a little, "I don't think it will matter much, but I can do that."

He relaxed a little at that. "Thank you."

"And what do _we_ do?" She asked, still not comfortable with sitting back and watching this whole thing unroll.

"Everything we possibly can from behind the scenes," he told her. "Gathering intel, providing information, coming up with back up plans and back up plans for our back up plans." He raised his eyebrows a little.

Chloe nodded slightly and ran a hand over her hair, "do the others know where we are?"

"Yeah. But I don't expect we'll be seeing them anytime soon," he said, watching her.

"Why not?" She asked.

"They're gonna be pretty busy doing what they can to help Clark."

"I guess that is much better than them coming to check in on us," she agreed quietly.

Oliver paused. "We'll be okay, Chloe," he said softly, shaking his head.

"It's not us I'm worried about," she admitted, pursing her lips together and keeping her eyes on him, her chest tighter than before.

"It's Clark." It wasn't a question.

"And Jimmy and Lois and the team, Oliver." Chloe told him.

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "I hope you know that I wouldn't let them put themselves in danger and me sit it out or ask you to do the same unless I _really_ truly believed it was the _only_ option."

"I do," she said sincerely, searching his eyes, "but that doesn't mean I don't still think that things are already different, and that there might be a lot that you and I _should_ be doing." She told him intensely, taking a step forward.

Oliver gazed back at her, his eyes darkening as she moved closer to him.

Chloe took a deep breath, "make a timeline of everything he told you," she said, "if he gave you dates, even better. You and I will monitor all of it and compare, when things start going off track, we will need to change our plans too."

"All right," he agreed, swallowing hard.

Nodding slightly, she let out her breath, "anything else you'd like me to see around the house?"

He dropped his gaze. "You're welcome to go anywhere on the grounds you want."

"But not outside of it?" She frowned, staring at him.

He frowned as well, looking up at her. "We can leave and I can show you around, of course."

"Good," she said firmly, "because unless you had time to pack for me, I don't even have a toothbrush, much less clothes."

"There are some things for you in your room, but yeah, we can always get more."

"Can you show me where that is?" She asked, she needed a shower and she needed to think about everything Oliver had told her and then, as soon as he went to bed, she would be making her way back in here to start on her own research about what he had said.

"Absolutely," he told her with a nod, leading her out of the room and down the hallway. Her room was directly across from his and he drew in a breath before opening the doors. "Here you go."

Chloe stepped into the room he showed her and blinked a couple of times, she had been expecting it to be big and nice looking but not quite as much as it was. It was huge, like a honeymoon suite in a very fancy hotel, there was a huge bed in the center and to a side, a couch and a table with a chair, across from it, she could see the bathroom and she was fairly sure there was either a huge bathtub or a jacuzzi in it.

"If you need anything let me know. I'm right across the hall."

"Are you going to bed?" She asked, turning toward him and keeping her voice completely neutral.

He paused at the neutrality in her tone. "No, I was thinking about hitting the gym."

"Oh," Chloe nodded slightly, "okay, I'll probably just shower."

He turned to go, letting out a breath. "Chloe?"

"Yeah?" She said, pulling out her jacket and turning to face him again.

He didn't turn to look at her. "I hope you don't hate me for dragging you here." His voice was soft.

Her chest tightened and she looked down then sighed softly, "I don't," she told him, her own voice quieter, "I know you're doing whatever you think will be the safest for everyone." Of course he had just been through a lot, meeting his future self and being told a lot of things that he probably still needed to process and understand. So while he decided that this was the best plan, it didn't mean it wasn't a harsh decision.

"All right," he said softly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she called after him, keeping her eyes on him until he disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

  


And as planned, when she heard Oliver making his way to his bedroom, she snuck out of her own and made her way over to the computer room. She had been surprised by the fact that Oliver had set up an entire wardrobe for her, in her size, along with shampoo, towels, toothbrush and everything else she would need, even down to tampons. But she still wasn't as impressed with her room as she was with this one.

She took a moment to familiarize herself with the network and the machines, but it was pretty similar to the Clocktower set up, so she found her way around it fairly easily. And then she begun researching. Finding Davis Bloome hadn't been hard, and for everything Chloe read, he was incredibly religious and he had had a difficult childhood. Going from orphanage to foster home and back to orphanages, never really stopping in a particular house, which made Chloe feel bad for him, but of course there were no records of him at all until he was three and that made sense if he had fallen from the sky like Clark had.

But Davis hadn't been the only one she had looked into. She also did her research on Tess Mercer, who apparently was not only Lex's right hand woman, but Oliver's ex- _fiancee_. She had had no idea he had even been engaged at all, so she was more than a little surprised to find this information.

And this woman sounded like bad news. She seemed to have developed an obsession with Lex and from what Chloe could tell, she was incredibly smart and determined, going from the swamps in Louisiana to Harvard wasn't for just anyone. She would definitely need to ask Oliver more on her and figure out exactly how he planned on stopping her from getting involved and getting Zod back to Earth.

That wasn't the focus _now_ , however. The more she thought about everything Oliver had told her, the less she felt like being stuck there and the less she understood why _she_ was stuck there. He had seemingly stopped the Brainiac infection from happening, so why wasn't she allowed to go back there? Unless of course he wasn't _sure_ she wasn't infected and if that was the case, he was putting his own life in danger and she would be better off alone somewhere she couldn't hurt anyone else.

There were a lot more questions than answers popping up in her head the more she tried to understand this entire situation, but she knew that for now, she probably wouldn't get a lot of the answers she wanted.

Not until Oliver was ready to be completely honest with her. 

* * *

A few hours later, Oliver stood in the doorway of the room, leaning against the frame and rubbing his sleep-filled eyes. He yawned, raising his eyebrows. "Don't tell me you've been here all night."

Chloe stilled when he spoke, holding her breath and turning toward him then trying for a smile, "well, depends on the timezone?"

He offered her a wan smile, shaking his head a little. "I should've waited to show you this room til today so you could've gotten some sleep," he teased.

"I slept plenty on the plane," she told him, shrugging a little, "I wasn't tired."

"Right," he said, nodding as he watched her.

"I don't even know what time it is here," she admitted, looking around mostly so she wouldn't look at him.

"A little after eight in the morning," he told her with a small smile. "There aren't any windows because Vic said sunlight isn't good for the equipment."

"He's right," she nodded, turning toward him once more.

"This kind of thing isn't my forte," he admitted.

"You know who to ask for help if you wanna learn." She told him, smiling a little.

He smiled back without hesitation. "Touche," he agreed.

Chloe took a deep breath and looked at him for a moment, "did you have a chance to work on that timeline?" She asked, pursing her lips together.

"No, that's on my agenda for today," he told her. "I was thinking of making some breakfast. Interested?"

"Yeah..." Chloe nodded slightly, "I guess we should eat." She really didn't know how long ago it was since she had had any food at all but now that he had mentioned it, she was definitely hungry.

Nodding as well, he headed for the door. "What sounds good? Eggs? Pancakes?"

"Coffee?" She said hopefully, following him toward the stairs.

"Well, yes, that too. But I was thinking actual food." He raised an eyebrow.

"Either one would be fine with me," she told him, "I don't normally have breakfast."

"But it's the most important meal of the day." He frowned.

"I prefer dinner personally," she smirked a little as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"But you need a good breakfast so you can have enough energy to get you through the whole day."

"That's what coffee is for," she pointed out, frowning a little at him even though she was smirking.

"You know, too much caffeine is bad for your heart." This time his voice was teasing.

"Yeah, well, I don't plan on living that long anyway, might as well enjoy my coffee," she smirked as she turned to look at him once they were in the kitchen.

This time _he_ frowned. "Why would you say something like that?"

"C'mon, Oliver, the life expectancy of people involved in the things we are isn't exactly long." She told him.

He sighed softly, his stomach tight as he led the way into the kitchen and over to the fridge silently.

"What's wrong?" Chloe frowned, turning toward him and watching him closely.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head a little as he pulled out the carton of eggs and the gallon of milk.

Chloe didn't move, just placed a hand on her hip and kept her eyes on him.

He turned and met her eyes, realizing she was staring at him. "What?"

"I know there is a lot that you're not telling me, Oliver." She told him, "and I'm sure that, all things considered, you need time to process some of it. But if it's _big_ , I need to know."

Oliver exhaled slowly, staring back at her for a long moment. "I've told you most of the big stuff already," he said.

"Why don't you tell me why you're keeping me away from everything?" She pressed once more, "the truth."

"Because he said I _had_ to," he said honestly.

"And he didn't give you a reason?" Chloe frowned, not believing that.

He leaned back against the counter, rubbing a hand over his face. "He gave me a lot of reasons, Chloe. I've already told you most of them."

"Do you think I'm already infected by Brainiac?" She asked bluntly.

He blinked a few times, surprised by the question. Sure, the thought had crossed his mind, but he honestly believed he'd gotten there in time to prevent Brainiac from taking over. "No," he said quietly.

"Can you be sure?" She asked, this time taking another step forward.

Oliver paused, cocking his head to watch her. "Do you feel stronger than usual?"

"No," she told him, frowning slightly.

"So you don't think you can throw me into the other room with one hand?"

Her eyes widened a little at the question, "I could try but I think the only thing I'll manage is hurting my hand."

"Then I think we're good," he said with a small, amused smile.

"Did I--" she paused, "did she do that?"

Oliver nodded a little, watching her. "Apparently other me was concerned because your eyes had turned completely white and you--uh, she, was doing some kind of alien-thing to a crystal to bring Clark and his cousin back to earth."

"Oh..." she paused and looked down for a moment, "I guess that doesn't sound good."

"It sounds a little scary," he agreed.

"Yeah," Chloe frowned and looked at him once more, "did she hurt him?"

He shook his head. "Nothing serious," he assured her.

"Good," she breathed, nodding slightly then leaning back against the counter as she kept her eyes on him.

"How do you like your eggs?" he asked, glancing down at the carton.

"Scrambled," she answered quietly, eyes still on him.

He gazed at her for a moment. "I know this is really weird. And hard," he whispered.

"I'm sure it's not easy on you either," she told him, "seeing him and hearing all of it at once."

He looked down at the floor. "No," he admitted.

"And I know none of this is your fault and I don't blame you for it, Oliver." Chloe said seriously.

Oliver chewed the inside of his cheek, glancing up at her. "You're not uncomfortable being here with me?"

"I'm not thrilled by the idea of being locked away and of not being to help," she admitted, "but you are not the issue."

He gazed at her. "Good," he whispered, a soft smile touching his mouth.

She looked at him for a moment, "but I can't help but wonder if, with everything you've been thrown at, this really is the best idea."

He sighed softly. "Chloe, I really need you to trust me on this one."

"I'm trying to, Oliver." She told him, looking over at him, "I'm on the other side of the world with you and I haven't called Clark to come get me, aren't I?"

"I know. And there probably aren't enough words in all the languages combined to thank you for that." He gazed at her.

Chloe held his gaze, searching his eyes then nodded a little.

"Chloe, do you believe in fate?" he asked curiously, leaning against the counter.

She frowned a little at the question, if she had to guess, she would never have thought that _his_ answer would be yes, but she supposed seeing a future version of yourself changed people, "not particularly."

"Not even with Clark?"

She considered him at that then shrugged a little, "not really. I think he can make his own, but he won't. He will follow the destiny Jor-El has chosen for him."

He paused, watching her. "So you don't think Clark's destiny is to help save the world?" There was uncertainty in his tone.

"I think he will do it because it's the right thing to do and I think he will need as much help as he can get, but I think believing it's what is supposed to happen and just letting it happen is lazy," Chloe told him, "you make your own choices."

He fell silent, looking lost in thought.

"Why are you asking me this?" She frowned, watching him closely.

"Just thinking," he murmured.

"What do you believe?"

"I don't know anymore," he said quietly. "I'm not sure I ever have."

"I just refuse to believe that I can't be in control of my own life," she told him, also quietly.

He exhaled slowly, nodding a little and turning away, toward the stove, his expression troubled.

"Oliver, what is going on?" She asked, pushing from the counter and walking to where he was.

"What do you know about my parents?" he asked quietly, not looking at her.

"Not much," she admitted, "other than the fact that they died in that plane crash, which you now told me happened thanks to Lionel, and well, that they were all involved with Dr. Swann to find out about the traveler."

"Yeah." He was silent for a moment, trying to ignore the twinge of bitterness he couldn't help but feel. "They were all involved trying to find Clark before anyone--even _Clark_ knew who he was."

"They knew something had come down with the meteor shower though," she pointed out, picking up on the bitterness in his tone but not blaming him for it. She would probably be bitter about her parents' death too if that had happened to them, regardless of the circumstances.

He took a deep breath. "They knew before that," he told her, glancing at her sideways. "They all did. They knew he was coming, Chloe. I don't know how, but they did."

"Jor-El had been here before," Chloe told him, "long before the destruction of Krypton, that's why he sent him to Smallville. Maybe them knowing it had something to do with that."

"Maybe," he murmured. "Or maybe there's even more to the story that we don't know." He turned to face her. "Lionel killed my parents because he wanted to keep the Traveler to himself or...whatever." He gazed at her. "But there's stuff you don't know, too. Chloe, the island I landed on when my boat was hijacked? It was the same one that my parents' plane crashed on."

Chloe frowned at that and stared at him, "no, I didn't know that. Do you think Lionel was behind that too?"

"No," he said quietly, shaking his head. "It was a family friend of my parents' behind that. The guy didn't even know Lionel."

Her stomach tightened a little at the information and she suddenly felt unsettled. "What do you think it means?"

"I'm not sure. That we're all tied irrevocably, inevitably together?" He gazed at her. "All of us. Think about it. You were born and raised in Metropolis, right?"

"Until I was twelve," she told him, nodding slightly but not adding anything else because she was curious about where he was going with this.

"And your mom was meteor infected," he said softly, holding her gaze.

"We were on a trip to Smallville the day of the first shower," she admitted, looking down.

"The shower that brought Clark to Earth." He pursed his lips.

"Yes," Chloe told him, "there was a LuthorCorp event for employees, dad was already there and just as we were driving in, it started. It was an annual event, not a one-time thing." Although they hadn't gone before, according to her dad.

"It was the day after my parents' plane crashed," he told her.

Her chest tightened and she turned to look at him once more, her eyes a little wide now.

"Yeah." He looked down for a moment, then back up at her. "You. Me. Clark. Lana. Lois. Lex." He shook his head a little. "We were all brought together because of Clark, Chloe. Even if we didn't know it for years."

"So what do you think it means?" She asked, her voice lower now but her eyes were intense, "that we are somehow responsible for making sure he gets where he's supposed to go? That we are taking over for what your parents and Dr. Swann were trying to accomplish by making sure Earth has it's savior?"

"I don't know," he whispered, rubbing his hands over his face and suddenly feeling completely drained.

She felt tense all of the sudden, looking away from him, she began pacing the kitchen slowly as she tried to make sense of this. She didn't believe in fate, but maybe there _was_ something to this.

He blew out a breath, opening the carton of eggs silently and cracking them into a pan on the stove-top, staring down at them as he lit the burner. "It's weird," he whispered.

"I guess it is when you make that connection..." she said quietly, taking a deep breath.

"And out of everyone who was part of the Veritas group, how is it that the only kids still alive are me and Lex?" He sighed softly.

"And all of the adults are gone too," Chloe added, chewing on the inside of her bottom lip.

Oliver shuffled the eggs around in the pan with a wooden spoon. "I was the only one--uh, he was...the only one still left," he whispered.

She paused at that and turned to look at him, "in the future?" She frowned, "Lex was gone?"

"Murdered," he said quietly.

"Who did it?" She asked, feeling like there was some meaning to that statement.

He swallowed hard, not answering.

"I did?" She assumed, her eyes widening instantly.

Oliver turned to look at her with furrowed eyebrows. "No, Chloe. _I_ did," he whispered.

"Oh." Chloe blinked a couple of times, "why?"

He looked back down at the pan, silent for a moment. "Because that's who I am."

She blinked a couple of times at that and shook her head, "no, it's not."

"Apparently it is." He paused. "I tried to kill him once already. Almost succeeded."

"When?" She frowned, taking a step closer.

He was surprised that Clark hadn't told her about it. "Last year. We almost killed one another, actually." Not that that made it any better considering Oliver had been the one to initiate it. "I shot him with an arrow. He put a bullet in my chest."

Chloe's eyes widened at that, "I didn't hear about this," she said, frowning, "or anything about you being shot."

He turned the stove off when the eggs were finished and dumped them onto two plates. "Twice actually. One not by Lex." He handed her one of the plates. "It was before last Thanksgiving. One of my staff had designed a drug that could heal a person within minutes. Unfortunately the side effects weren't really worth it."

"What happened?" She asked, watching him closely.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I hurt Lois," he admitted, guilt washing over him. "Not on purpose. She didn't know I was Green Arrow. Just that Green Arrow had broken into the clocktower. Or so she thought."

"Oh," she nodded slight, vaguely remembering _that_. "Well, if you need healing now, you don't need drugs."

He smiled faintly at that, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah."

She smiled a little at that and nodded, "and you _haven't_ killed anyone, Oliver." She told him quietly, "even if he has in the future, that doesn't mean you will make the same choices."

"And what if I do?" He gazed at her, shaking his head. "What if it's just what's supposed to happen?"

"Then I'm supposed to turn into Brainiac anyway and none of this is doing any good," she said firmly, holding his gaze.

Oliver drew in a breath, nodding a little and forcing himself to relax. "You have a point there."

"You decided to bring me here to change things," she told him, "he didn't do that, did he? You're already a different person than he was."

"Right," he said softly. "In the actions maybe. But at the core? If the desire to do something is somewhere buried inside me, do you think it's possible to just ignore it forever?"

"I think maybe things will turn out differently now and the desire will go away," she said firmly, "I hate him too, Oliver. I hate him for what he's done to all the people in the 33.1s and what he's done to my mom. I think we all hate him to the point of wanting him dead, and we have all wished he was gone but that doesn't mean any of us are going to actually do it. Obviously, even with him being gone, there are still evils that we will have to fight against."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting her words sink in. "I think maybe I might need your help with that."

She looked at him for a moment, it was weird to see him looking so... vulnerable, unsure. It wasn't like Oliver and she was starting to understand just how much this was not only bothering him, but scaring him. "How can I help you?" She asked quietly.

Oliver was quiet for a little while, and then he lifted his gaze to meet her eyes. "If I get too close to becoming that person, I need you to do whatever it takes to keep me from going over."

Chloe held her breath and nodded slightly as she searched his eyes, "I'll do my best to pull you back," she whispered.

He nodded, as well, swallowing hard, and knew that his future self had been right. Somehow, Chloe Sullivan was the only person with the capability of doing whatever it took to keep _him_ grounded. 

And the implications of _that_ scared the hell out of him.


	5. Chapter 5

  


He'd forgotten how big the grounds were at the estate.

He'd spent the majority of the day walking around trying to piece together a timeline in his mind of everything his future self had told him, and he'd been jotting everything down in a small notebook as he thought about it.

And then he'd headed inside and spent the entire evening cooking dinner.

He and Chloe hadn't spent a lot of time together in the short time they had known one another, but he did know she liked Italian food. And that happened to be one of his specialties. He hadn't seen or heard from Chloe since breakfast, when she'd vanished upstairs, and if he had to guess, she was probably back in the computer room. Likely with a large mug of coffee beside her. A small touched his mouth and he shook his head a little as he pulled the fettuccine alfredo from the oven, and then the garlic bread he'd made.

He set them on the table in the dining area, then pressed the intercom button on the wall. "Pay no attention to the man in the kitchen, Dorothy. But do come eat the food." He smirked a little.

"I would have a much wittier reply to your Wizard of Oz references at the Kansas girl had this thing not given me a heart attack." She answered a moment later.

He chuckled involuntarily. "Let me guess. You're absorbed in the technological world."

"Focused is probably a better word," she told him, "I'll be right down."

"See you then." He grinned and shut the intercom off.

Chloe took a deep breath and stood up, picking up her mug before making her way over to the stairs. She hadn't really had much more to research as far as what was supposed to happen went so she had been researching the people involved with protecting the Traveler along with Oliver's family to see if she could find more weird coincidences. And she had found a big one that was making her feel more than a little unsettled.

"It smells really good," she said, smiling a little as she entered the kitchen.

He smiled back at her. "I know you like Italian."

Her stomach tightened a little more and she nodded, "I do, and apparently you're the only one who knows Italian goes beyond pizza."

Oliver cocked his head to the side. "The only one _ever_?" There was a hint of teasing in his voice.

"Well, in the team," she pointed out, smirking slightly.

"Gotcha." He smirked back at her, then nodded toward the table. "Hope you're hungry."

"I am," she told him, smiling a little before making her way to the set table. "Thanks for cooking, again."

"You're welcome." He sat down across from her. "A little bird told me that cooking isn't a strong suit in the Sullivan-Lane clan." He smirked.

"I think Lois would be offended to be called a little bird," she told him, "but it's the truth, we tend to set things on fire when we try to."

"Well, we can't have that."

"No, which is why I usually stick to the microwave and the coffee pot," she told him.

"I'll have you spoiled with actual food before you know it." He grinned a little.

"I might have to ask Bart or Clark to run you over when I'm craving your food when we're back, then," she told him, looking down at the table as she took her seat.

His smile faded just a little at that and he swallowed hard, picking up the glass of wine he'd poured himself and taking a drink.

Chloe looked over at him and took a deep breath then shook her head a little, "I found something."

He paused, glancing up at her and arching an eyebrow. "What?"

She took a moment then leaned back against her chair, "Our moms knew each other."

Oliver stared at her. "...what?"

"I didn't find much yet," she told him, "but my mom went to Star City University for a while and from their records, she had some classes with your mom, before they met our dads."

His heart began to beat a little faster in his chest as he stared at her with widened eyes.

"They wrote a research paper together," she whispered, holding his gaze, her own heart beating faster.

He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it, leaning back in his chair. "What was the paper about?"

She suddenly felt sick, reading it had been hard enough, but wording it... "a team of vigilantes called the Justice Society of America."

Oliver stared at her for a moment, then a short chuckle escaped him. "A team of vigilantes."

"They were all arrested and the public believed they were the bad guys and that they were going against the law," she went on, "but they didn't."

When he realized she wasn't kidding, he swallowed hard, falling silent as he watched her, the sadness in her eyes making his chest clench.

She looked at him for a moment longer then looked down and took another deep breath. The little that she read about this had been enough to scare her about whatever it was this meant but also to make her incredibly angry that neither of them had had a chance to really get to know these women.

"What uh--what was their stance? Did you find it?" He held his breath.

Chloe sat up a little and nodded, "I haven't read the actual article yet," she admitted, "but I found a blurb for it on the student records and it said that they were questioning the public opinion on the JSA case."

"So it was an objective paper," he murmured.

"It was just for an English class," she said quietly, "but it got published in the university newspaper, I just haven't found the archive yet, it might not be digitized."

He forced himself to take a deep breath, staring blankly down at the pan of food. "Right."

"If I can’t find it, I will contact the university and see if they can send me a copy." She paused. "Or maybe you should since they are more likely to do anything _you_ want them to." Chloe suggested, looking up at him.

Oliver glanced up, nodding a little. "I'll call them when it's morning there."

She sighed deeply and unconsciously pulled a foot over the chair then hugged her leg to her chest. She remained quiet for a long moment then shrugged, "maybe you're right."

He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Or maybe we both are."

Chloe looked up at him, "what do you mean?"

He gazed at her. "Maybe some things _are_ meant to happen. All of us meeting, being involved in each other's lives...but maybe the rest is up to us to figure out."

"Maybe," she agreed in a whisper as she held his gaze, "but I don't see how anyone can believe this is a coincidence at all."

"I don't think it is," he admitted quietly.

"Then we need to figure out what it means," she told him, her voice firmer than before.

"I'm not sure there's a way to do that, Chloe," he said softly, shaking his head.

"I think that at the very least, we need to try our best to figure out who they _were_."

He blew out a breath, shutting his eyes for a moment.

Chloe stopped and she held her breath at that, "I'm sorry," she added quickly, "I'm sure this is hard on you."

He shrugged a little, not looking at her when he opened his eyes. "It won't be that difficult to figure out about my parents." His voice was flat. "I have all of their journals and things."

"If you're not ready for this, Oliver, you don't have to." She whispered.

"I'm just still trying to wrap my mind around all of it," he told her, picking up his glass of wine and drinking the rest down quickly.

"So am I," she admitted, looking down once more.

"Do you think your mother was involved in some aspect of Veritas?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," it was something she had considered briefly as soon as she came across the information, "my dad never talks about her and she was never mentioned in any of the things I read about the group, but Lex did seem incredibly interested in her."

He rubbed a hand over his face tiredly. "Do you have any idea where your mom was before Lex had her?"

"In a mental institution outside of Metropolis," she took a deep breath, "she was admitted when I was twelve, apparently. She admitted herself."

Oliver blinked, surprised. "Why?" He shook his head.

"I don't know for sure," she took a deep breath and hugged her knee tighter against her chest, "she slipped into a catatonic state days after she admitted herself. I think she did that to herself so that she couldn't use her powers anymore."

"Chloe, what _is_ your mom's power?" he asked, leaning forward and watching her intently, taking in her nervous posture.

"She can control other meteor freaks," she told him, lifting her head and looking up at him, her expression blank, "if she gives one of us a direct command, we can't not do it and then we wake up with no memory of what we were doing while under her control."

He stared at her for a moment. "Oh," he whispered.

"She thought she could only control me, but Lex told her otherwise," she let go of her leg and dropped her foot to the floor.

"God." He rubbed his hand over his face again. "I had no idea."

Chloe nodded slightly then took a deep breath, "that's why she left us in the first place. She accidentally hurt me once and she was afraid it would happen again. I don't think she ever told my dad the truth." She never talked about her family, especially her mom and her leaving her and her dad, but considering she had looked up his family history, she felt like the least she could do was answer his questions about her own.

Oliver gazed at her for a moment, then reached out wordlessly and laid his hand over hers on the table.

She stilled when she felt his hand on hers then turned to look at him, her first instinct was to pull away but how could she when he was offering her comfort even though he was going through something similar?

He met her eyes, giving her hand a light squeeze. "I can't imagine how hard that must have been," he said quietly.

Her face softened a little but she shook her head, "what you went through is so much worse," she whispered. At least her parents were alive, even if her dad didn't know most about her life anymore and her mom couldn't speak or move.

He paused, looking down for a moment. "Loss is loss," he murmured. "It hurts the same."

Chloe held her breath and turned her hand in his, wrapping her fingers around his palm and squeezing it slightly. 

Oliver lifted his gaze to meet hers once more, his chest tightening at her action. _Maybe he was right_ , he thought, searching her face.

She kept her eyes on him for a moment then took a deep breath, "we will take it as slow as you need to," she whispered, "and if you don't want to be involved, I'll look into it myself."

"No," he said quietly, shaking his head. "We'll do it together."

Nodding slightly, she held his gaze, a little relieved that he wanted to be a part of it because somehow, she felt like it would be easier if he was there with her.

"A team," he whispered, a very faint smile touching his mouth.

* * *

Dinner had been relatively quiet, they asked each other a few questions about their families but didn't say much else about it. But toward the end of the meal, they reached more pressing matters, specifically the fact that Chloe hadn't called Clark yet and they had been there for two days already. So she headed to the computer room and set up the call through their system so it would be untraceable, not that Clark had the technology or knowledge to trace it, but it was better to be safe.

Her stomach was in knots as she took the seat in front of the main terminal and waited as the line rang.

A moment later, Clark picked up. "Hello?"

She held her breath for just a second then let it out, "Clark? It's me."

"Chloe? Oh thank God. Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she nodded, taking a deep breath, "I'm okay, and I'm safe." She told him, sitting back as she looked at the screen in front of her.

"Where are you?" His voice was filled with worry. "Are you with Lana?"

"Lana?" She frowned then shook her head, "no. I'm... away."

"So is she. She's gone, Chloe," he said, sounding distressed.

Chloe paused at that and sighed, "I will see if I can find her," she promised.

"Where are you? I'll come help."

"You can't," she sat up straight, "and you can't look for Lana either."

"What are you talking about? Why can't I?"

"Because you have something much bigger to take care of, Clark. The world depends on you."

"And that means I can't have a girlfriend? That I can't have friends?" His voice rose a little.

"No," she stood up, "but I will do my best to find her myself, and you won't be alone during this, the boys will be there to help you, but you need to _listen_ to what they will tell you, Clark, or it won't matter anyway because we will all be gone." She said firmly. She felt horrible telling him everything like this, but she knew he wouldn't listen otherwise and he would focus on Lana instead.

There was a moment of silence. "Chloe, what are you talking about?"

"The voicemail Oliver left you, did you listen to it?" She asked, Clark wasn't great about answering his phone, let alone listening to his messages.

He paused. "No...what does Oliver have to do with any of this?"

"He heard some things, but it doesn't matter. You need to listen to me and I need you to _trust me_ ," she added sharply, "can you do that?"

"Of course I trust you. Tell me what's going on."

"There is another Kryptonian. I don't know much about him, but Jor-El probably does. He has a human form and he goes by Davis Bloome, I have emailed you some information on him, but he's a monster, Clark and he will kill a lot of people if you don't stop him."

Clark paused again. "But how do you know this, Chloe? Or is this coming from Oliver?"

"Oliver has some information," she told him, "go to the fortress, Clark, see what else you can find out before it's too late."

He sighed softly. "All right. But how can I get a hold of you?"

"You can email me," she took a deep breath, "I'll keep checking it often and I will send you more information as soon as I have it. Contact Bart, Victor, AC and Dinah, they can help you."

There was a long pause. "You're _with_ Oliver?"

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment then sighed, "yes, I am."

"Chloe..." There was more than a hint of concern in his voice.

"I'm okay," she promised, "and it's safer for everyone if I stay away, Clark. I know you don't trust him, but trust _me_."

"What are you talking about? How can it be safer if you're not around? Chloe, what's going on?"

"I'm still getting the details out of him. Read everything I have sent you and go talk to Jor-El. I will send you more information as soon as I have it, Clark." She said calmly even though her chest was tight.

Sounding frustrated, Clark shook his head. "Just be careful. Oliver's not exactly the safest person to be around."

"I'll be okay, let me know when you talk to Jor-El, okay?"

"All right. Talk to you soon." The line went dead.

Chloe sat back down and sighed deeply, rubbing her hands over her face and closing her eyes. She suddenly felt drained and she knew Clark wasn't happy with this but all of her felt like she should be listening to Oliver right now. 

Oliver paused in the doorway of the computer room. "How'd it go?" His voice was quiet and by her posture, he knew Clark hadn't taken the news very well.

She dropped her hands to her lap and turned the chair around a little to look at him, "about as well as expected, I guess."

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, holding her gaze for a moment, then looking down.

"I told him to check on the information I emailed him," she said before getting up, "and to talk to Jor-El."

He nodded a little, sighing softly.

"Lana has also left," she told him, sighing softly, "I promised him I'd look for her."

Oliver pursed his lips. "If we were on the same timeline as before, she left to track down Lex," he told her.

"She did?" Chloe frowned in surprise.

He told her what his future-self had said about Lana taking advantage of finding Lex's ‘Prometheus’ project and wearing the invisibility suit the man had apparently designed for himself. "But that didn't end well, either," he said quietly.

Her eyes were wide at everything he told her and shook her head slightly, "what happened to her? Is she okay?"

"The other me didn't know what happened to her after she left town shortly after that." He looked down once more. "Lex hired an ex-employee of mine to try and kill Tess and me, and he put a second bomb on top of the Daily Planet. But the bomb was filled with Kryptonite, so Clark couldn't get rid of it." He paused. "Lana's suit was designed to be able to absorb the kryptonite and she was able to diffuse the bomb, but the suit gave off a lot of radiation from the stuff. Clark apparently couldn't get within ten feet of her without being violently ill. So she left."

"Oh..." she whispered weakly, suddenly regretting her decision to stand up, "that's horrible."

"Yeah." He nodded in agreement, glancing up at her, his expression worried as he saw the look on her face.

She sighed softly and shook her head, "I have always known Clark and Lana don't do each other good," she whispered, "but I was hoping they would reach that decision on their own instead of being forced into it."

"Maybe they will now that we've already changed things," he said softly.

"Hopefully," she breathed, shaking her head a little and looking away.

"Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded a little, "I guess I'm just now realizing how much he has told you and how much you had to process..."

"It's a lot," Oliver admitted, letting out a breath.

"It is," she nodded, "and we have a lot to do too."

He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Too much for a short break?"

Chloe paused at that and shook her head a little, "I was actually thinking of going for a walk, try to clear my head some so I can focus better."

A faintly amused look crossed his face. "You were?"

"Yeah," she arched her eyebrows a little and shrugged, "it sounded like a good idea?"

"It does," he agreed, cocking his head to the side. "I was actually about to suggest it myself."

"Oh," she nodded a little and chewed on the inside of her lip, "I guess it's time we start shrugging off the weird coincidences?"

"Is that what they are?" He met her eyes.

Her chest tightened a little and she shrugged before shaking her head, "I don't know anymore."

"Maybe we're just more alike than either of us realized," he suggested, watching her closely.

"I don't think I can argue with that," she said quietly, searching his eyes.

His lips curved upwards in a smile and he nodded, holding her gaze. "Why don't we take that walk?"

"Yeah," Chloe breathed, "I avoid being outside as much as can but I guess it might help."

"Plus it's the beach." He held his hand out toward her without really thinking about it.

She paused and looked down at his hand, hesitating before taking it awkwardly, "I haven't really been to the beach in a long time."

"Me either, and considering I'm from California, that's kind of sad," he said lightly.

"Worse than me," she nodded, glancing down at their hands once more when she felt his fingers curling up around her own, her stomach suddenly feeling tighter once more.

As if realizing she was uncomfortable, he paused and looked down at their hands, as well.

She chewed on the inside of her lips for a moment then looked up at him, realizing he noticed she was looking and feeling even more awkward, "should we go?"

Oliver held his breath, then met her eyes, nodding a little but not letting go of her hand.

Chloe looked away and started out the room, her hand still in his. She had no clue what he was doing and although she should be pulling her hand away, she found herself extremely reluctant to do so. Again.


	6. Chapter 6

  
  


_Oliver was on his way into the master bathroom when he caught sight of a pair of underwear on the bedroom floor. He paused in his tracks, staring at them for a moment in confusion and then swallowing hard as he looked toward the partially open door. Licking his lips involuntarily, he took another step, pausing and listening to the unmistakable sound of the shower running. His heart began to beat a little harder in his chest and as he pushed the door open a little more, steam poured out._

_"Chloe?" he said uncertainly._

_There was a moment of silence, "yeah?" She called._

_"Is everything okay?" He scratched the back of his head._

_"Yeah?" She popped her head out of the curtain and smiled at him, "everything okay with you?"_

_His eyes widened a little. "Uh, yeah, everything's fine with me but..."_

_"But what?" She smiled more, arching her eyebrows. "You know, it's really hot outside... I was so sticky from the heat, this is making it so much better."_

_He swallowed hard. "You're in my shower?"_

_"Is that a problem?" Chloe asked._

_Oliver held his breath and shook his head a little. "It was just..." He cleared his throat. "An observation."_

_"You know..." she said slowly and shrugged, "there is plenty of room in here."_

_His eyes widened a little. "I know..."_

_"And I don't mind sharing..." she went on._

_"You don't?" He took a step closer to the shower._

_"Not with you." She grinned a little, stepping aside and pulling the curtain with her to make room for him._

_He couldn't help but stare at her, all speech leaving him as he licked his lips and slowly reached up to undo his tie, letting it drop to the floor._

_"You knew this would happen eventually, didn't you, Ollie?" She asked, letting go of the curtain so her breast was now partially exposed._

_"He said it would," he murmured, not taking his eyes off her as he began to unbutton his shirt._

_"I knew it too," she said, holding his gaze. "I've been hoping for it for a long time."_

_Oliver's eyebrows furrowed a little. "You have?"_

_"Yes," she pushed the curtain away and stepped forward, closer to him, "a very long time."_

_He sucked in a breath as his gaze traveled over her naked, wet body. Then he shed the rest of his clothes, stepping into the tub with her wordlessly._

_Chloe eyed him and licked her lips, grinning up at him as her eyes met his once more._

_He lifted his hand to her cheek, then dipped his head to kiss her._

Oliver woke up suddenly, heart beating quickly in his chest. His body was flushed with heat, his eyes narrowed and dilated. _Christ_. What the hell was _that_?

* * *

Chloe dried her hair in a towel and took a deep breath as she yawned, making her way down the stairs and a beeline toward the coffee maker. She had only slept for a couple of hours so she had woken up, showered and was hoping that the coffee would help her wake up enough to continue on her work.

Oliver stepped into the kitchen a moment later, freezing in place when he caught sight of her a few feet away, her hair wet. Instantly his mind flashed back to the very inappropriate dream he'd been having right before he'd woken up and he swallowed hard.

Chloe heard his footsteps and turned around, smiling a little at him sleepily, "hey," she greeted before returning to the coffee pot and starting the coffee, "I didn't wake you, did I?"

 _Yeah, you did_ , he thought immediately, though he didn't say it. Instead he forced a smile and shook his head. "No."

"I know you don't like coffee, but you look like you could use some," she said, arching an eyebrow and glancing at him over her shoulder.

He shook his head again. "No, I'm all right with juice. Thanks. Just...didn't sleep that well."

"I'm sorry," she frowned, "you can go back to bed if you want to."

"No, no," he said quickly, afraid of what he might wind up dreaming about _this_ time. "I'm all right."

Chloe frowned a little more at that but turned back to the coffee maker, "okay."

"Did you sleep okay?" he asked, opening the fridge and pulling out the carton of juice.

"Not a lot, but I passed out for a while," she told him, placing her towel over her shoulder then reaching for a mug.

Oliver nodded a little, not really surprised by that. He moved over to the counter and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. "Yeah." He poured himself a glass of the orange juice and took a long drink. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?" She said quietly, arching her eyebrows as she leaned back against the counter and watched him as she waited for the coffee to brew.

He pursed his lips for a moment, well-aware that the topic he was about to breech might be crossing a line. "You and Jimmy..." He glanced at her sideways. "Do you uh...do you miss him?"

"Oh." She blinked a couple of times, once again she hadn't thought about him at all since the last time Oliver brought him up, "I-- it hasn't really been that long." She said quietly, feeling horrible for not missing him. For not even _thinking_ about him.

He watched her for a moment. "It's okay if you don't," he said gently.

Her face softened a little and she shook her head, "not really."

Oliver nodded slightly, leaning back against the counter and taking a drink of his juice. "He doesn't exactly seem...your type," he said hesitantly.

Chloe furrowed her eyebrows for a moment and cocked her head, "I have a type?"

"Doesn't everyone?" He frowned a little.

"I don't know, maybe? I don't know what mine is if I do."

"Maybe you haven't dated enough," he suggested, raising his eyebrows.

Chloe blinked a couple of times at that and turned toward the coffeepot, "not all of us can have your dating history, Oliver."

He winced at that. "I didn't mean it as a put-down, Chloe."

She kept her back to him and shrugged a little, "it's not a big deal, it's the truth."

Oliver rubbed a hand over his face and set his glass down on the counter. "It's just, other me made me think. And from what he said, you and Jimmy were pretty far from a romance for the ages. I just wouldn't want to see you settle down and wind up regretting it later when there are other options out there," he said quietly.

"It's not about romance--" she started then frowned and turned around, "did he tell you I didn't... stay with Jimmy?"

"He said that before Jimmy died, things were...turbulent," he said hesitantly.

"Oh..." she looked down for a moment. That really was no different from the rest of their relationship, "I guess it doesn't matter anyway. I can't put him in danger."

Oliver looked down, as well. "Do you love him?"

"I could, eventually." She said, feeling uncomfortable.

He swallowed hard, nodding and falling silent as he gripped his glass just a little tighter.

Chloe poured some coffee into the mug and took a deep breath, "I'm gonna start back up on the research," she told him before starting out of the kitchen.

"Right. Okay." He didn't look up as she headed toward the exit.

* * *

Awhile later, Oliver found himself leaning against the doorframe of the computer room upstairs. "How's it going?"

And that caused her to jump. Again. With a deep breath, she shifted and kept her eyes on the monitor, "I still haven't been able to find their paper."

"Sorry," he whispered, looking down and sighing softly.

"Do you wanna call the university?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah, I will." He chewed his lip for a moment. "Chloe, about earlier...look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought all that stuff up. It's not any of my business."

Her chest tightened and she took a deep breath then shook her head before glancing at him over her shoulder but not really looking at him, "it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, it kinda does," he said quietly, his own chest tight. "Look, I mean, I dragged you across the world, literally, and other than asking for some answers about why, you didn't even protest or try to fight me on any of it and we don't even hardly know each other."

"It doesn't matter, Oliver. I already ended things with him." She told him tightly.

He looked up at that. "What?"

"I told you I wasn't going to put him in danger," and the fact that he hadn't even realized she'd been gone for over three days when she called had just made her more comfortable with the decision.

Oliver chewed his lower lip again and hesitantly stepped into the room. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"I'm not cut out for the whole relationship thing anyway." She told him, moving over to the next terminal, "obviously," she added in a quieter voice.

"You're wrong about that." He held his breath, raking a hand through his hair.

She rolled her eyes a little, "what makes you say that?"

He raised his eyebrows a little at the doubt in her tone. "Just trust me on this one."

Chloe paused at that and turned to face him, a frown on her face as she watched him closely. He knew something, he had to. But for once, she was afraid to ask.

"You just haven't dated the right one yet," he said softly.

"And you know who the right one is?" She asked before she could stop herself.

He held his breath for a moment. "I know who the other Chloe was with when..." He swallowed hard, looking away.

"When _what_ , Oliver?" She demanded, taking a step forward, her heart beating faster, her eyes wide.

"When she died," he whispered.

Chloe stilled and swallowed hard, somehow she knew that was what he was going to say, but still, hearing it was different than guessing it. She looked at him for a second then looked away.

"But that's not going to happen here." His voice was suddenly more forceful and firm. "Okay? I mean, yeah eventually because it's inevitable, but it's not going to happen like it did _there_."

She stared at a random spot on the wall for a long moment then eventually, took a sharp, deep breath, "how did it happen?" She figured the more she knew, the more she would be prepared if they _couldn't_ change things.

Oliver's chest felt tight. He didn't want to talk about it. He hadn't meant to bring it up. He didn't even want to _think_ about it. "When the Kandorian's took over. Zod's army. One of them uh..."

"...Killed her." She finished for him, "do you know how she died, Oliver?"

"A sword," he whispered, not looking at her.

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded slightly at that, walking away from him and rubbing her hands over her face. At least she knew what to expect.

"But that's not gonna happen here, Chloe."

"No," she agreed, because they were stop Zod from invading no matter the cost, but if this was the plan, and she started to believe more and more that there was a plan, maybe she would die regardless, just in another way.

Oliver watched her for a moment, then moved over to where she stood, standing with her back to him. He hesitantly rested his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he whispered.

She stilled and took a deep breath before shaking her head, "what if it's meant to?"

"I refuse to believe that."

Chloe turned around slowly and shook her head slightly, "I thought you believed in fate."

"I believe in some of it. But I don't think we're useless puppets, either," he told her, shaking his head and gazing at her intently. "I do think we were all meant to be connected somehow. But if it's my choice whether or not to kill Lex Luthor, and it's not just something that's going to happen regardless of whether I want it to or not, then you dying isn't a certainty either. And I'm not going to let it happen."

She held her breath for a moment, searching his eyes then let it out slowly and nodded.

"You're gonna be okay," he said, his voice dropping as he held her gaze. "I promise."

Chloe nodded slightly then shrugged a little, "I guess my life doesn't matter in the big picture, we need to make sure we stop Zod regardless or what we have to sacrifice for it."

"Don't say that," he said sharply, his eyes narrowing. "Your life _does_ matter."

"That's not what I'm saying, Oliver," she took a deep breath, "all I'm saying is that if it means sacrificing one of us to make sure our world doesn't turn into what you described, then so be it."

"No, I know what you're saying. And I'm telling you it's not going to be necessary. As soon as Bart locates that crystal, he's destroying it. Zod won't ever make it here at all."

"Good." She said, holding his gaze. "As long as we're on the same page."

"We are," he said firmly.

Chloe nodded slightly, sighing softly, "is Bart going to let you know when he finds something?"

"Yeah, he knows to call me as soon as it's been taken care of."

"Good," she took a deep breath and looked over at him, "and Clark is hopefully going after Davis. Which leaves us to do what?"

His mind immediately flashed to the mental image of the two of them together in the shower and he swallowed hard. "I should call the university and see if they have that paper on file. If they do maybe someone can fax it to us."

"Or scan it and email it," she nodded a little, "I'll set up the call through the computer so it's untraceable."

Realizing his hands were still resting on her shoulders, he nodded a little and reluctantly pulled away.

Chloe looked up at him then turned to the main terminal and pulled up the number for the college library then set up the call through their network. The monitor begun ringing a moment later and she stepped aside, making room for him.

Within a few moments, one of the student assistants had agreed to email everything they had on both Laura Wallace and Moira Walsh, and Oliver retrieved the information quickly from his email account, glancing up at Chloe after forwarding everything to her account, as well. "Here we go."

She glanced at him then stepped forward, "should we read it?" She was dying to, but she didn't know if he would be comfortable with it.

"It's why I called, isn't it?" His voice was quiet and he raised his eyebrows a little.

"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you're comfortable with it," she told him, stepping forward and in front of him before pulling up the file.

He held his breath for a moment, his chest already tightening as she pulled it up, wondering what his mother's stance was on _vigilante_ activities when she was younger. He rubbed the back of his neck, turning away and beginning to pace the length of the floor.

The article appeared on all of the monitors a moment later and she glanced at him before turning to the screen and starting to read.

Oliver swallowed hard, slowly sitting down in front of one of the monitors and forcing himself to read the words on the screen.

Chloe also focused on the screen, her heart beating quickly as she read the article. There was no telling which one of them was writing what, but what was clear was that both of those women were passionate about this, about helping people, about justice. They questioned the government and the media, they questioned the circumstances in which those vigilantes had been arrested and the article sounded so much like something Chloe herself would have written. By the time she scrolled down to the bottom of it, she had to blink away the tears so she could read the words through her blurry vision.

He sat back slowly in his seat, feeling dazed at what he'd read. He chewed the inside of his cheek, then turned his head to look at Chloe, seeing a similar expression on her face as she tried to absorb the paper their mothers had written. "Oh," he whispered.

She took a deep breath and nodded a little, glancing over at him, "yeah," she whispered. There wasn't much more to say, their opinions were clear.

Oliver shifted slightly in his chair, scooting a bit closer to her and hesitantly holding his arms open.

Her face crumbled a little at the gesture and while it was unexpected, it wasn't unwelcome. With a deep breath, she leaned closer and wrapped her arms around him, figuring he needed a hug as much as she did.

He wound his arms around her tightly, pulling her closer and burying his face into her hair as his eyes fell shut. He felt overwhelmed and yet somehow hugging Chloe gave him a sense of relief.

Her own arms tightened around him as she pulled him to her, moving to sit on the very edge of her chair, her eyes tearing up once more.

"You okay?" he whispered, rubbing her back without thinking about it.

Chloe nodded slightly, sniffing then taking a deep breath without pulling away "you?"

He rested his head against hers. "I think so. I wasn't sure what to expect," he admitted quietly.

She turned her head a little so she could look at him, "it almost sounded personal to them, she whispered.

Oliver swallowed hard at that, nodding. "Yeah, it did."

Chloe chewed on the inside of her lip, watching him, "you think, maybe it... could be?"

"Are you asking if I think our moms did the whole vigilante hero thing?" He gazed at her.

She took a deep breath and shook her head, "I think that's a little too far, but... maybe they knew someone who did? I mean, your mom was obviously involved with the Veritas Society, and while I haven't found any records about my mom being involved, there is obviously a whole lot I don't know about her."

He was silent for a moment. "I don't think anything's out of the question at this point," he admitted.

Chloe cocked her head slightly, "didn't you say you have your parent's journals?"

Oliver held his breath. "They're at the mansion in Star City."

She watched him closely and shrugged a little, "maybe we should make a trip."

He swallowed hard, nodding a little. "Maybe we should."

"We don't have to let anyone know we're going," she said, sitting up a little as she loosened her arms around him but didn't pull away, "but maybe there we can find out more about them."

His hands shifted to rest on her hips as he held her gaze. "All right."

She was surprised he was agreeing to this so easily, but also relieved because she couldn't wait to find out more about this, "how soon can we leave?"


	7. Chapter 7

Within forty-eight hours, they were making their way to the Queen Mansion in the suburbs of Star City. Oliver had mentioned to her that he had some journals with him at the penthouse but that the majority of them had been stored in a fire-proof safe inside the mansion. The place was perfectly maintained, the gardens had flowers in them and the grass was mowed, it didn't even look like no one had lived there in decades. Not that she could blame Oliver, she had no doubt it hurt being by himself in that huge house.

But that wasn't why they were there, they had a lot of research left to do. She had pulled a lot of information on the Justice Society on the way there and it looked like they had been based in Metropolis back in the day, but Chloe had the feeling that they would be able to connect at least one of the members back to Star City and to their moms, "where is it?" She asked as he closed the front door behind them, anxious to get to the information.

"Upstairs," he said softly, looking toward the grand staircase that swept upwards in a slight spiral. He leaned against the door for a moment, then drew in a breath, pushing himself away from it.

It wasn't until she saw the look on his face that she considered how hard being here might be on him, "you okay?" She asked quietly.

Oliver nodded silently, running his hand lightly along the polished banister as he moved up the steps slowly, a faint, sad smile touching his mouth. "I tried to slide down this once," he told her, his voice sounding far away. "I think I was four."

Chloe glanced over at the banister and winced a little, "I'm guessing it didn't go so well?" She said quietly.

"I broke my collarbone," he admitted. "Which apparently was enough to make me never do it again."

Her face softened and she nodded a little, "a broken arm was enough for me to never want to follow Lois up on on the highest trees for a long time, I'm guessing a collarbone is much more painful not to mention, scarier."

He glanced at her sideways. "Well, broken arms aren't fun either. How old were you?"

"Three or four," she told him, "no, definitely three, just before my fourth birthday."

Oliver paused. "Same age I was."

Chloe held her breath and nodded slightly, "just about," she added quietly.

"Interesting coincidence," he murmured, swallowing hard.

"Sometimes I wish we had an AI with all our answers waiting for us like Clark does," she sighed softly, glancing up at him.

"From what you've said, he's kind of a mood-swinging AI, though." He raised his eyebrows a little.

"True..." she said quietly, "but he has this one place where he can go and find out all about his heritage, I don't know, it sounds... simpler. More concrete, I guess."

His expression was sad and he nodded a little, looking up at the top of the stairs. "Yeah."

Chloe took a deep breath and started glanced at him then hesitated for just a second before holding her hand out to him. She didn't know why, but it felt like what she should do. Offer him some comfort at least.

Oliver looked down at her hand, then slowly slid his fingers through hers, giving her hand a light squeeze.

She held her breath and tried for a small smile, squeezing his hand back and nodding a little, "come on." She encouraged, but didn't move, not wanting to push him.

He nodded, too, heading up the steps once more, his fingers tightening around hers just a little involuntarily.

Even as she followed him, she squeezed his hand in hers. She was anxious to read everything they could find, but also nervous about what kind of information would be there and how it could change well, everything.

Within moments they were heading down the upstairs corridor toward a home office where Oliver flipped on the light, then moved over to the safe in the corner, kneeling to unlock it.

She let go of his hand and stepped aside before kneeling too, holding her breath as she looked inside the safe.

He pulled out several leather-bound books, blowing out a breath, not even realizing his hands were shaking as he held one of them out to her and slowly sat down on the floor.

Chloe took it carefully and sat down next to him but kept her eyes on his face, "are you sure you want me to read all of it? I don't want to overstep anything."

"It's fine, Chloe. I trust you," he said softly, glancing over at her. "And we'll get through it quicker if we're both reading."

"Okay." She breathed, nodding slightly and turning down to the journal before she started to read it.

He watched her for a moment, then did the same, leaning back against the wall for support.

He had a feeling he was going to need it.

* * *

A couple of hours later, they had gone through a big pile of journals, a lot of the information was on the Veritas project, make that _all_ of the information so far. "No mention of her," Chloe said, closing the last journal of the pile Oliver had handed her.

He shook his head a little, closing the journal he was holding, as well. "Here either." He reached into the safe once more, pausing as he pulled out a large manila envelope. "I don't remember seeing this before," he murmured. Not that he'd spent a lot of time going through his parents' things. He rarely went to the mansion, and when he did, he _never_ came into the office.

Chloe frowned and stood up, making her way from the small couch she'd been sitting on now to where he was by the safe, "what is it?"

"I'm not sure." He drew in a breath, slowly and carefully opening the envelope that had his mother's name written on it. He pulled out another envelope--this time a regular plain white one, pausing when he caught sight of the return address. "Chloe," he whispered, his eyes widening.

"What?" She asked, eyes widening as she knelt down next to him.

"It's from your mom." He swallowed hard, holding it out to her.

"A letter?" She asked, blinking a couple of times as she took it.

He nodded a little, and pulled another envelope out, holding his breath. "I think they're _all_ from her, Chloe."

"This one isn't from too long after the article," Chloe told him, "paper," she corrected, "she must have moved back to Metropolis shortly after that..."

Oliver glanced at the postmark date on the envelope she was holding, then at the one in his hand. "This one was later," he murmured. "But not a lot."

Nodding slightly, she turned back to the letter and read quickly, "she is talking about how there has been no progress," Chloe said even as she read, "and she says she will send your mom more news if anything changes, but I think your mom already knew your dad by then because she's asking for information on the 'rich boy.'"

A faint smile touched his mouth as he read the one in his hand. "This one says that he's not changing his mind," he murmured, eyebrows furrowing. "But he's nice about it, apparently. Whatever that means." He held it out to her.

"He?" Chloe frowned, taking the letter and skimming through it, "is there more?"

"Yeah, quite a few." Oliver pulled them out and laid them down on the floor between them, picking one up and watching her do the same.

She handled the paper carefully then began to read once more, "Carter," she said, frowning as she glanced at him, "my mom says Carter is a lost cause and that she should try to move on." She turned back to the letter, "she also mentions my Aunt Ella, Lois' mom. Says my aunt tells her she's wasting her time."

"Who's Carter?" he wondered aloud, frowning, too.

"I don't know, but apparently it's someone she cared about enough to move back to Metropolis for," Chloe said with a frown, "and apparently he didn't feel the same way." And _that_ apparently ran in the family.

"Turned out for the best if you ask me," he said pointedly, opening one of the other envelopes.

She smiled softly at him then held her breath as she moved on to the next letter silently, "this one is almost two months later," she told him, "she's still mentioning Carter but just that he is busy with work, and won't let her help him," Chloe frowned then arched her eyebrows, "then she says she started working for LuthorCorp, that's where she met my dad, he was a Junior Engineer and she was a receptionist."

He pulled the letter from the envelope he held, pausing as a picture fell out. He picked it up, staring at it for a moment, then turning it over and staring wide-eyed at the words written there. "Oh my God," he whispered.

Chloe froze instantly and sat up, eyes widening too, "what? What is it?"

He looked up at her, his face a little paler than before and he handed the picture over wordlessly.

She took the picture from him and swallowed hard as she looked at it, recognizing herself, even as just a newborn, instantly. She looked at the little boy holding her and kissing her face and her stomach dropped, "is that..."

"Me," he finished, swallowing hard.

Blowing out a breath, she nodded a little, staring at the picture for a long moment before turning it over and sure enough it said 'Oliver & Chloe - Nov. 13 '86' in her dad's handwriting, "I was three days old."

"I was three," he murmured, staring at the photograph.

Chloe nodded slightly and turned the picture around once more, holding it between them so they could both look at it, "the plant over here, this was taken in our old apartment, the one dad and I lived in until we moved to Smallville." She whispered, her voice tight, "do you remember this at all?"

He pursed his lips, shaking his head a little. "No," he said, drawing in a breath.

"I guess they were really good friends," she said quietly, eyes still on the picture.

"I guess so. I had no idea," he whispered.

"Neither did I," she placed the picture on top of the envelope, "but you were obviously right..."

Oliver was silent for a long moment, staring down at it. "So what do we do?"

"I guess we read the rest of these and-- wait." She paused, frowning, "can I have your phone?" Hers was still in Smallville, after all.

His eyebrows furrowed a little at the request, but he handed it over to her wordlessly.

She took it and clicked on it a few times, pulling up the search she had made earlier through the computers. Chloe read silently for a moment then took a deep breath, "Carter Hall was arrested today in Metropolis, Kansas. He was the leader of the gang of vigilantes that had been taking matters into their own hands across the nation. His codename was Hawkman." She read out loud before glancing at Oliver, "I knew the name was familiar."

He stared at her. "The guy your mom was interested in was one of the members of this other team?"

"I don't know for sure, but Carter isn't that much of a common name, is it?" She asked, her heart beating faster, "but if he is, we have to find him."

"I'll go get your laptop from the car. It'll be easier to work on than the phone," he told her softly, climbing to his feet.

"Okay," she nodded, closing the search then reaching for the letters again to start going over the ones that were left.

Oliver headed out of the room, pausing in the doorway to look back at her, his chest tightening a little. He could only guess that his future self had no idea about any of this, since he hadn't mentioned any of it. But suddenly things were becoming much, much clearer.

* * *

They spent over an hour researching Carter Hall and matching the timeline of Moira's letters to the news and after reading a few articles, there was no doubt in Chloe's mind that the two were indeed the same person. Which was why she then moved on to research the man himself and try to figure out where he was _now_ because it sounded like he was going to be the one big link they would be able to find between them and their parents.

"He's definitely out of prison," Chloe told him, chewing on her bottom lip as she scrolled down the page, "and I don't see a death certificate anywhere..."

Oliver picked up his telephone. "Think he's listed in directory assistance?"

"Well... the guy has no address or phone listed on his name, his social security hasn't been used since came out of jail so I don't think so. But I guess you can try." She shrugged a little.

He sighed softly, setting his phone down again. "So he just vanished?" Not that he could blame the guy. After all, he'd only been trying to do what he could to help Metropolis, and the people had turned on him. Had sentenced him to prison.

"Well... maybe he did," she whispered, turning back to the laptop that was on the desk in front of her, "but he had a whole team that should lead us to him, right?"

"Unless they split after everything," he murmured, looking away from her and falling silent, thinking about what future Oliver had told him--that he'd done _just_ that.

"It could be..." she kept on typing, "but there must be someone in Metropolis still and we do know the general location they were based from because they all got arrested within a ten mile radius of each other."

He nodded absently, staring blankly at the window of the study, at the slowly dissipating light outside. The sunset, he realized idly.

Chloe didn't even realize he had moved away from her, she kept on typing as she accessed the Queen Industries satellite and began setting it up to look for Carter in the images. She didn't stop until she was done and when she was, she took a deep breath, "okay," she turned the chair around, looking for him, "I'm running facial recognition, hopefully if he comes up, the computer will find him. Of course the images we have of him are a little outdated but should be the same features."

"Good. That's good," he murmured, staring outside over the grounds. "Hopefully we'll find something soon."

She watched his back and nodded slightly before standing up and moving to stand next to him, "how are you doing?"

"Fine," he said instantly, not looking at her. "I mean this is just another one of those weird things we should be used to by now, right?

Pausing for a moment, she took a deep breath then shook her head a little, "not really..." she glanced at him, "we're used to weird things when it comes to the team or the situations we're thrown in and the missions and Clark." She turned to look back out the window and sighed softly, "but it never had anything to do with our families before, it was never this... personal, I guess."

"It's been personal for you," he murmured. "With your mom."

"Not like this," she shifted a little, "her ability, I figured... she didn't even know what it meant, that she didn't figure out things like this could happen until Lex explained it to her. But I guess she did know all along."

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, his gazed fixed on the horizon. "And how are you doing with it?"

"I don't know," she shrugged a little, "I just want answers."

"Yeah," he murmured.

"Maybe we should leave," she suggested quietly, turning to look at him again.

"And go where?"

"Back to the penthouse?" Chloe said quietly, "it must be overwhelming for you to stay here."

Oliver was silent for a moment. "Do you think they ever thought about it?"

"About what exactly?" She asked, leaning sideways against the window to face him.

"How dangerous it was." He didn't look at her. "The whole Veritas thing. Do you think they had any idea that Lionel Luthor might turn against them?"

Her chest tightened a little and she took a deep breath, "they probably had some idea that it was dangerous," she told him quietly, "but I don't know about Lionel, maybe? Your parents kept their own journals and discoveries..."

He nodded a little, looking down at the floor for a moment. "You think they cared?"

"That they were in danger?" Chloe frowned and stood up straight, "Oliver, of course they cared."

He shrugged. "Obviously it didn't matter enough."

"What makes you think that?" She asked quietly, inching closer to him.

"Because they stayed involved in it," he told her.

"Maybe they didn't have a choice," she whispered, lifting a hand to his shoulder.

Oliver turned his head to look at her, silent as he met her eyes.

Chloe held his gaze and squeezed his shoulder gently, "if they thought the traveler was going to be incredibly powerful," she said quietly, "and if they knew how Lionel was and what could happen if he had control of the traveler and all of that power, they probably felt like they had no choice but to do the best they could to make sure he didn't get all that power to himself."

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Yeah, maybe," he whispered, looking out the window once more.

"They loved you, Ollie," she whispered, "I don't know much about them, but they obviously talked a lot about you in the letters to my mom based on her replies and I have seen pictures of the three of you and they are staring at you and smiling proudly in almost every single one of them."

His chest tightened at her words and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He nodded wordlessly, not sure if he was capable of speaking right then.

She hesitated for a moment then dropped her hand from his shoulder before sliding her hand in his and squeezing it tightly, she wished she could have more to offer him than her guesses but she obviously had about as many answers as he did.

Oliver blinked rapidly, looking down at their joined hands. Then he looked up at her, his shoulders slumping a little.

Chloe watched him for a moment, her own eyes tearing slightly, "we'll find answers," she promised, holding his gaze as a lump formed in her own throat, "and we'll be okay."

"Promise?" It was a stupid, childish thing to ask. To hope for. But the single word escaped him before he could suppress it.

Her chest tightened a little more at that and she shook her head, "I can't," she whispered, "but I promise we'll do everything we can."

He swallowed hard, nodding and looking out the window once more. "No, I know. I know," he murmured.

Chloe's face fell a little and she held onto his hand tighter, "I'm sorry, Oliver."

"It isn't your fault," he told her.

"I'm still sorry you are having to go through all of this," she said quietly, because in a way, it was her fault. She had been the one who went looking for this after all.

Oliver looked down at their hands once more. "At least I don't have to go through all of it alone."

"You don't," she told him, her voice firm now as she lifted her free hand to his arm, "you won't."

He lifted his gaze to meet hers once more, holding it, and his breath. "You either, Sullivan," he murmured.

She managed a small smile at that and nodded a little, taking a deep breath, "thank you."

Oliver squeezed her hand lightly, then hesitantly moved closer, winding his other arm around her.

Chloe looked up at him for just a second then let go of his arm and hand and wrapped both arms around him.

He hugged her back tightly, shutting his eyes and resting his chin atop her head. He wasn't used to being offered actual _comfort_. At least the no-strings-attached kind. But this was something he could definitely get used to.

And that was scary.


	8. Chapter 8

  
  


Oliver wasn't certain that the two of them going to Metropolis to search for Carter Hall was the best idea in the world.

In fact, he felt it was pretty much one of the worst ones they could have made, but he understood Chloe's need to track down the man who'd apparently known her mother so well. If someone out there knew his parents and he'd never met the person, he'd be doing the same thing. It was the reason he'd finally given into her pleas. That and frankly she was a hard person to say no to. And he wasn't sure if everyone felt that way or if that was just something that _he_ apparently struggled with.

But as they made their way into the clock tower, he felt his stomach tightening with uncertainty.

Bad idea, he thought as he led her off the elevator and into the apartment suite. Very bad idea.

"Maybe we should wait until it's dark," she suggested as she walked into the familiar penthouse, "so we don't alert the media to the fact that you're here."

"Probably a good idea," he agreed with a nod. At least they wouldn't have to wait too long, considering it was dinner time already. "Are you hungry? I have no idea what kind of food's around here."

"Kinda," she nodded a little, "but we can order pizza or something?"

"Pizza's good," he agreed, moving over to grab the phone. "But you might want to place the order if we're trying to keep low key."

"Yeah," she nodded, holding out her hand for the phone, keeping her eyes on him.

He met her eyes, then handed the phone over, their fingers brushing together.

"Any preferences?" She asked, her voice quieter than before.

"No," he said quietly, feeling his chest tighten as her voice dropped. "Whatever sounds good to you is fine with me."

Chloe nodded a little and smiled slightly then called the pizza place she usually ordered from when she was working late at the Planet, making the order quickly then nodding at him once she hung up, "about half an hour."

"Sounds good. I think I'm gonna take a quick shower before it gets here. You can have whichever guest room you'd feel most comfortable in," he told her, heading toward the hallway.

"Oh," she nodded a little, "thanks, I'll wait for it."

"I shouldn't be long," he told her, offering her a small smile before vanishing down the corridor.

"Take your time," she called after him then sighed softly, picking up the suitcase she had packed with clothes from Australia and dragging it down the hall to look at the guest rooms. Oliver was still reluctant about them being in Metropolis and considering everything he had told her, she couldn't blame him, but they both needed the answers she was hoping Carter Hall would be able to provide.

He returned after awhile, his hair still damp from the shower as he walked down the hallway, buttoning up a long-sleeved black shirt over his black jeans. "Find a room you liked?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah," she nodded a little, "I put my things in the one across the hall from yours? I hope that's okay, the others all had things in the closets, I assume the boys stay there?"

"Yeah, that's fine," he assured her, nodding, as well. "And yeah, they keep things here in case they need anything if they're around."

"Makes sense," she said quietly and smiled a little at him, "no one stays in that last one, then?"

"Now someone does," he said softly.

"Thanks," she smiled a little then shifted closer, "how are you doing?"

Oliver lifted his gaze to meet hers. "I'm all right. How are _you_ doing?"

"Anxious," she admitted, smiling a little more, then nodding at him, "but I guess it won't be much longer."

"We'll find him, and we'll get you answers," he promised quietly.

"Hopefully he will have more answers than just mine, Oliver." She told him.

He was silent for a moment. "I just hope it's stuff we want to hear. It'd be a nice change."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," she agreed quietly, keeping her eyes on him.

He shifted slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. The way she kept looking at him made him unsettled. He wasn't sure if she was waiting for him to have some kind of emotional meltdown over all the things they'd been learning about their parents, or if she was just trying to figure out what he _was_ thinking.

Chloe didn't look away despite his obvious discomfort, until the intercom rang, "I'll go get it," she told him quietly.

He let out a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding, watching as she headed away and chewing the inside of his cheek. He was still reeling over the fact that he'd _held_ her when she was three _days_ old. And if the photograph was anything to go by, he'd been fascinated. Everything felt very surreal.

She was a little more worried about _him_ than about everything else they'd found out so far at the moment because she had the feeling he wasn't taking it so well and while it was a lot to process and she felt overwhelmed too, she was doing her best to push it away until they knew more.

With a deep breath, she pushed the gate out of the way and stepped up into the penthouse again.

He greeted her at the gate, reaching out and taking the pizza from her. "Smells good," he commented, raising his eyebrows and leading her into the kitchen to the small dining table.

"Pepperoni with extra cheese," she told him, smiling a little as she followed.

Oliver paused at that, glancing at her as he set it down on the table. "Have we ever had pizza together?"

"I don't know," she frowned a little, "I didn't really stick around after that one mission..."

"Right," he murmured, moving over to the cabinets to pull down a couple of plates and glasses.

"I was told it was a tradition, though," Chloe said quietly, filling the glasses with ice.

"It's pretty much Bart's favorite. Unless he's craving Mexican." He set the plates down, glancing over at her. "What do you want to drink?"

"Water is fine," she told him, filling one of the glasses with water, "you?"

"Water works for me, too." He watched her for a moment, then moved to get napkins from the cupboard, as well. "So uh, is pepperoni and cheese your favorite?"

"Yeah," she nodded a little, filling up the second glass, "what about yours?"

"Let's just say you ordered perfectly."

Chloe let out a breath and nodded a little, walking over to the table and setting the glasses down, "I guess that's not surprising, huh?"

"I'm sure it's a lot of people's favorites," he tried, moving over to sit down at the table, dropping the napkins in the middle.

"It's not an unusual flavor," she agreed, nodding slightly, "not like there is pineapple in it."

"Right," he said with a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Well, ladies first." He motioned to the pizza.

She reached for a slice and pulled it on her plate then smiled a little at him too before taking a bite. 

Oliver pulled out a slice of pizza next, taking a bite and setting the rest down.

"I realize that, like you said, we're not that close." She said, even though with everything that they'd been through in the past few days, it didn't really seem accurate anymore, "but if you wanna talk about things, Oliver. I'm sure a lot is bothering you..."

"To be honest, Chloe, I'm not even sure what to say," he said softly, taking a drink of his water.

Chloe nodded slightly and shrugged, "I know. It's overwhelming."

That was an understatement, but he knew she was simply agreeing with him, and he kept the comment to himself. He took another bite, chewing as he turned the facts over in his mind. "So our mothers were best friends," he murmured.

"Sounds like it," she agreed quietly. "I never really heard much about my mom's friends other than Aunt Ella."

"Do you think your dad knows?" He glanced up at her.

"Yeah," she held her breath a little, "I mean, he must know they were friends if you guys were there so soon after I was born and the handwriting on the picture is his."

"Then maybe that's another option we should consider exploring," he suggested.

"I don't know, Oliver," she breathed, "he never talks about her and--" she hesitated, "I never told him I found her."

Oliver paused at that, a little surprised. "Oh."

Chloe took a deep breath then looked down at her pizza and shifted, "I'm not sure how he'd react. He-- she really hurt him when she left, even when I asked him questions, he didn't really answer them."

"It's okay," he told her, shaking his head. "You don't have to explain anything to me you don't want to talk about, Chloe."

"If Carter can't get us any answers, I'll talk to him," she told him, chewing on the inside of her lip then shrugging a little, "but I think mentioning that I found her now after all this time would just hurt him more."

He nodded, taking a sip of his water and watching her closely.

Chloe took another bite of her pizza and chewed on it slowly, but didn't look at him, "do you think I should tell him?"

"Only if you feel like you want to or need to." He looked down for a moment. "Sometimes some things are best left unknown."

"Yeah..." she agreed quietly, "maybe he has moved on?"

"When's the last time you spoke with him?"

"A couple of weeks ago," she told him, "he's been busy with work and I was too..."

Oliver nodded, gazing at her. "I'm glad the two of you keep in touch."

"He's a great dad," she said quietly then shrugged a little, "but there is a lot he doesn't know."

He reached out and gave her hand a light squeeze. "He has an amazing daughter. And I hope he knows that."

Her face softened and she smiled a little, squeezing his hand too and nodding slightly.

He smiled softly, letting go of her hand once more and picking up his pizza.

"Your parents did too," she said quietly after a moment, "have an amazing son."

Oliver held his breath for a moment, looking down at his plate. "Thank you," he whispered.

Her chest tightened a little and she nodded, "I'm not just saying that," she added, glancing at him then taking another bite of her slice.

"Well, I'm no Clark Kent," he said softly, leaning back in his chair. "But I do what I can."

"Clark envies you," she told him almost in a whisper.

He blinked, looking over at her with furrowed eyebrows. "What?"

Chloe smiled a little and nodded before shrugging, "he envies you and the team and the support you offer each other and the fact that you can... turn it off if you want to."

"Clark could have the support of the team if he wanted it," Oliver pointed out. "But he does the whole loner thing instead. And sometimes I wish I _could_ turn it off."

"But that'd be too easy and without enough drama," she smirked slightly then shrugged, "I think that he feels it's a choice for you but it isn't for him."

He resisted the urge to snort and roll his eyes. "He is a bit dramatic, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Chloe hesitated a little, "but the thing is, he doesn't _want_ this life. If he could give up his powers and be... normal. He would."

Oliver sighed softly, falling silent for a moment. "Yeah, I get it."

"You would make that decision too?" Chloe frowned.

"No. But Clark didn't really get a choice in the matter. It's a choice I made," he said quietly.

"That's what I thought," she said, relaxing a little. She wasn't sure why his answer had been so important to her, but it had been. She looked up to him for making this choice.

"That being said, I envy Clark." His voice grew even quieter.

"Why?" She frowned once more as she reached for a second slice of pizza.

"A lot of reasons," he admitted. "Obviously having his powers would give me an advantage. I could help a lot more people in a lot smaller increments of time."

"That's true," she agreed, "but I think you putting all that effort into helping the people you can is an amazing accomplishment, Oliver. How many other people without powers do what you do? None. And Clark has his limits too, they are just different than yours."

He was quiet for a moment, considering her words. "I suppose we all have our limits," he agreed.

"We do," she agreed, "and as long as you're doing everything you can, you shouldn't envy him, because that's all he can do too."

He nodded a little, taking a bite of pizza and chewing thoughtfully.

Chloe fell silent and went back to her pizza too but kept her gaze on Oliver. There was a whole lot more to him than she realized.

* * *

Oliver glanced around the darkened perimeter of the old building, raising his eyebrows behind his glasses and then glancing at her. "Looks clear," he told her, his voice quiet, but distorted.

"Should be this way," she told him quietly, leading him to the back door of the building.

He followed her without hesitation, reaching out and turning the knob, sighing softly. "Locked," he told her, glancing around and pausing when he spotted an open window on the second story. He smirked. "But I'm all over this one. I'll get in and unlock it for you," he told her, glancing back at her.

Chloe chewed on her bottom lip and nodded a little, "be careful."

"Practically my middle name," he joked, pulling out his crossbow and firing an anchor line inside the window, grinning as he was propelled upwards quickly. Sometimes he really loved his non-paying job.

"Uh huh," she muttered, holding her breath as she looked up, watching him as well as she could.

A second later, glass from the same window shattered, raining shards down on the sidewalk.

And Oliver hit the pavement hard beside her.


	9. Chapter 9

She had no idea what was happening, one second she heard Oliver making it into the building and the next, there was glass flying everywhere. She barely had a chance to cover her head and shield herself from it and when she looked down, she noticed Oliver laying flat on his back and her eyes widened.

"Oliver!" Chloe gasped, not even thinking of his identity as she knelt down next to him, "Oliver!?"

For a moment, he couldn't even breathe. _Having the wind knocked out of you will do that, Smart Guy,_ he thought, staring up into Chloe's face as she leaned over him. And then pain shot through him. He blinked a few times, wincing as he struggled to sit up. "Run!"

Her eyes widened but she ignored his request, "are you alright?" She breathed, cupping his cheek when she realized he was bleeding.

"There's someone in there," he warned her.

"Take him out of here before I change my mind on keeping him alive." A voice growled.

Chloe turned around, her eyes widening when she saw the man hoovering a few feet in the air and his _huge_ wings.

"Don't talk to her," Oliver ordered, glaring at the bird-man.

She swallowed hard and glanced at Oliver, "it's him," she whispered before standing up. When her mom had mentioned 'Hawkman' in her letters, she didn't think it would be so... literal. "Cart-- Mr. Hall," she whispered, "we were looking for you."

He stared at her for a moment. "This is the guy? Seriously?" He resisted the urge to lay down on the sidewalk and bang his head on the pavement. It figured. It really did.

"Who are _you_?" He asked.

Chloe shifted, "I'm hm, I'm Chloe Sullivan." She said quietly then took a deep breath, "you knew my mom, Moira Walsh?"

The older man paused at that. "You're Moira's kid?"

"Yeah," she said quietly then glanced at Oliver and held her hand out to him, "and we think you know his mom too, Laura Wallace."

Carter's gaze flickered to the man he'd unceremoniously thrown out the second story window. "So you thought it'd be okay to break in?" His voice was gruff.

"Well, we didn't _think_ anyone would greet us at the door," Oliver retorted.

"We weren't sure you were in there, the place looked abandoned." Chloe explained, "can we come in?"

"For what?" he demanded, folding his arms across his chest.

"We were hoping you could tell us more about our mothers," she said, straightening and looking him in the eyes as much as she could considering his mask, "since they can't tell us themselves."

Oliver winced a little involuntarily as he slowly climbed to his feet, brushing shards of glass off his uniform.

Chloe reached for Oliver's arm and helped him up the rest of the way, "are you okay?" She asked quietly.

"I'll live," he told her, glancing at her sideways.

Carter smirked. "Might want to do a more thorough investigation of the next building you break into, Green Jeans."

Chloe turned to the older man once more, "are you going to help us?" She stopped herself from adding a 'or not' to that.

The smirk left his face. "I'll go unlock the door. Wait here." He flew upwards and vanished inside the broken window.

With a deep breath, Chloe slowly turned to face Oliver and frowned a little, touching his arm, "you're bleeding."

"Wish I could say the same for him," he grumbled.

"Just... take a deep breath? Maybe he's not so bad. He was trying to protect his... home or whatever this is?" She tried.

"He threw me out a window!"

She took a deep breath instead, "do you want to leave?" She suggested, "I'm sure I can handle him." She wasn't, but she wasn't going to force him to stay there if he was uncomfortable.

Oliver pulled off his glasses, giving her an are-you-kidding-me look. "No. I'm not leaving until we find out what the hell is going on."

Chloe let out her breath and nodded then paused, wincing as she reached a thumb and brushed it over his cheek gently, "you have a cut here too. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

 _Only my pride_ , he thought, shaking his head and looking down at himself. There were tiny little cuts all over his arms and he had a feeling he was going to be extra sore in the morning.

She watched him worriedly for a moment then nodded a little, dropping her hand from his face and glancing over her shoulder when the door opened behind them, "come on."

He drew in a breath, following her toward the door and glancing around to make sure no one had noticed any of the commotion. Satisfied that they were alone, he stepped inside the dimly lit building.

"What is this place?" Chloe asked as she looked around. It was big and dusty, it looked abandoned.

"What does it look like?" Carter asked her.

"Some kind of headquarters." She said, looking at the man who appeared to their left.

A faint smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "You are your mother's daughter."

Chloe arched her eyebrows and looked at him then glanced at Oliver and back at the older man, suddenly feeling nervous, "did you know Laura too?"

"Briefly," he told her with a slight nod. "But not as well as I knew Moira."

"She knew about you, then? And the Justice Society?" Chloe asked, her eyes wide.

"Just like you know all about the younger generation's society." He shrugged with one shoulder.

"Wait, what? What society?" She asked, stilling and turning to look at Oliver. Sure, denying it while Oliver was wearing bright green leather wasn't going to work, but she could try.

"Hate to tell you, Kid, but it wasn't that hard to figure it out. Especially considering I knew what to look for." He looked at Oliver. "And he sticks out like a sore thumb. Haven't you ever heard of keeping it low key?"

Oliver narrowed his eyes at the man. "You're one to talk about low key, Big Bird."

"Okay," Chloe said, stepping forward, "how about we focus on what we came here for?"

Carter lifted an eyebrow. "What do you want to know?"

She shifted uncomfortably, "we have been finding a lot of... coincidences lately. We never knew our mothers knew each other before or that we met each other when I was just three days old, apparently," Chloe said, glancing at Oliver and for some reason, her heart skipped a beat when her eyes fell on him, but she ignored that and looked away quickly, "we also never even knew there had been a team of vigilantes before ours, and then we found out that they knew about it too... it just doesn't feel like coincidences anymore."

"That's because it's not," he informed her, cocking his head to the side. "There's no such thing as a coincidence."

"Then what is it?" She pushed.

Carter was silent for a moment, glancing between them. "Follow me," he told her, heading away and down the darkened corridor.

Oliver blew out a breath, trying to ignore the impatience he was feeling.

Chloe held her breath and followed the other man, glancing at Oliver once more, her heart racing.

He followed Chloe somewhat reluctantly, his body tense. He didn't know this guy, but he already didn't like him.

She held her breath as they entered a room that had a lot of glass display cases that held all kinds of weird weapons and masks, "what is this?" She asked, although she had a pretty good idea.

"Let's just call it a museum," Carter answered, flipping the lights on to reveal the full room.

"Woah," she whispered, her eyes widening as she looked around the large room, "did they belong to members of your team?" She asked, approaching one of the cases.

"They did," he confirmed, watching her intently. "Over the decades and centuries."

"Centuries?" She echoed with a frown, staring at him .

"What do you believe happens when you die, Chloe?" Carter questioned, raising his eyebrows and moving over toward a covered-up frame on the wall.

Oliver stared at him for a moment, as well, then glanced sideways at Chloe, wondering if the guy had actually lost his mind. Maybe when he was in prison.

"I don't know," she said, "move on to better things if you're lucky," or get stuck there with a grudge if you're unlucky like the ghost that had possessed her.

"There's no such thing," he informed her, pulling the draping off the frame and revealing a large rectangular photograph of several people seated around a long table.

"And you know this because...?" Oliver prompted.

"Because I've died," Carter responded, turning to look at him. "Hundreds of times."

She stared up at the painting for a long moment then turned to the man, "I don't assume you mean in this lifetime?" She asked.

"Hundreds of years," he told her.

Yeah. Definitely crazy, Oliver decided, diverting his gaze and looking at the portrait.

"How can you be so sure?" Chloe pushed, watching him closely now. He had removed the mask as well as the wings.

"Because I remember it. All of it. It's my curse," Carter stated, looking up at the picture. "We all reincarnate. The people closest to us tend to come back to us in one form or another time after time."

Chloe frowned hard at that and glanced at Oliver, not feeling so sure about this, "and how does that have anything to do with our moms? And the two of us?"

He was silent for a moment. "Do you ever have moments of deja vu? For instance, you walk into a place you've never been, but you know all about the place? All the little details that you really have no way of knowing?" He glanced at Oliver and then back at Chloe. "Or clicked with a person on a level that you can't explain?"

"Yeah?" She breathed. One of those deja vu moments had been meeting Oliver for the first time at the barn. But no one needed to know that. "Are you going to tell me that's because I knew that person or place from another life?"

"Yes," Carter confirmed, nodding slightly.

Chloe took a deep breath and glanced at Oliver quickly, they'd seen strange things before so that wasn't all that out there, "what does it mean?"

Oliver glanced at her sideways, not completely convinced that this guy wasn't just messing with them.

"You're Moira's daughter," Carter said, arching an eyebrow. "I think you can figure that one out on your own."

"Okay now what does _that_ mean?" Chloe pushed, frowning.

"That your mother was extremely bright," he told her with an amused look.

"No offense, Mr. Hall," she said, slightly annoyed now, "but we have plenty of questions as is, we don't need more. That's not what we came here for. How did my mom know about you in the first place?"

He looked toward the portrait on the wall, silent for a moment. "She found me one night after I had gotten injured."

"During patrol?" Chloe asked, glancing at the portrait too then back at the man.

"Yes." He nodded a little.

"What did she do?"

A soft, fond smile touched his mouth. "Your mother was my Florence Nightengale."

Chloe kept her eyes on him for a long moment, "so she took care of you and figured out your identity," she told him, "what then?"

"We became friends," he said cautiously. "Though she wanted to be more."

"But you never were?" She asked, watching him closely.

"No. My heart already belonged to someone else."

She took a deep breath and nodded slightly, "and then she met my dad, do you know him?"

Carter was silent for a moment. "I met him once," he said with a nod.

"He doesn't know about any of this though, does he?"

"No, he doesn't," he confirmed. "It was better that way. The less people who knew, who got involved...the less people who got hurt." He looked over at Oliver pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you keep in contact with her even after she got married?" Chloe asked, "did she help you at all with the patrolling thing?"

"She wanted to. But I said no." He looked back at her once more. "It wasn't safe and I wasn't going to risk her life, or anyone else's."

"What if she had been supposed to help?" She asked, since he believed everything happened to a reason.

Carter shook his head. "We still have choices."

"Do you know what happened to her?"

"I'm afraid we lost touch after she married your father," he told her, shaking his head once more. "I take it she died?"

Oliver's jaw tightened a little and he looked at Chloe silently.

"No." She told him, her voice getting tight, "she's been in a coma for years."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said, looking down for a moment. "What happened?"

"I don't know much," she took a deep breath, "she left my dad and I when I was five, I found out a few years ago that she committed herself to a mental hospital, and she slipped into a catatonic state the day after she got there. She is meteor infected and she didn't want to be able to use her power anymore, so my guess is that she did this to herself."

"Meteor infected?" he echoed, his eyebrows furrowing.

"She has a power, it came from one of the meteor showers in Smallville." Chloe told him, that answered her question about whether her mom had gone to him for help or not when she found out.

"The shower that brought the Traveler?" he questioned, watching her closely.

"Yes," she said, glancing at Oliver.

"I see." He glanced at Oliver, as well. "Your parents were completely focused on that."

"I'm aware." His voice was flat.

"Did they know Lionel Luthor was going to try and betray them?" Chloe asked bluntly.

Carter turned to look at her once more. "That I don't know. I'm sure they suspected it. Lionel Luthor wasn't exactly known for his honesty and kind-heartedness."

"Was my mom involved with their group at all?" She asked.

"In the beginning. I did my best to discourage her from that path."

"Why?" Chloe frowned.

"Because I knew it was dangerous. Because I didn't trust Luthor, or the Teagues. I thought if I could keep her from pursuing it, I could protect her."

"Why didn't you warn the Queens too?" She asked without looking at Oliver.

Carter sighed softly. "They were already far too invested to be detoured," he told them. "And frankly, someone on the right side had to be."

"So you didn't even try," Oliver said, his voice distant.

Her chest tightened when she heard the distance in Oliver's voice, "what do all these connections have to do with us?"

"The two of you are even more involved in all of this then your parents were," he stated, glancing up at the portrait. "The next generation."

Chloe looked up at the portrait then glanced over at Oliver. Knowing about all of the connections helped, but other than that, she still felt just as lost as she had before.

"All you really need to know is this." Carter turned to look at them. "Be more careful. And just because someone says they're trustworthy of knowing the things you know, doesn't mean they are."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that pearl of wisdom, Confucious."

"Oliver," Chloe said, then glanced over at Carter once more, "what happened to the others?" She asked, nodding at the portrait.

"Some are gone. Some are still in hiding. Once they were outed, their families and friends' lives were in jeopardy. Which is _why_ you need to be more careful." His voice was a little harsher. "So you don't learn that lesson the hard way. The way that _we_ did."

"We're not planning on exposing anyone's identity to the public," Chloe told him, frowning.

"Running around town in a getup like that," He nodded toward Oliver and then looked back at her. "Does nothing but draw unnecessary attention to _you_."

"No offense, but I'm sure your wings attract a lot more attention than his green leather." Chloe said, arching her eyebrows.

"But you don't see me flying around with a girlfriend in tow, do you?" he asked sharply.

Her eyes widened and Chloe shook her head, "I'm not his-- we're no--." She paused, "I'm part of the team, I just don't need a costume for the work that I do."

Oliver glanced at her sideways, his chest tight.

As if slightly confused, Carter looked between them for a moment. "But you're out on a mission with him right now. And anyone could have seen you. That means anyone who hates Green Arrow could target you to get to him. And it would work."

"We didn't think coming to see an old friend of our parents would be dangerous," she lied, ignoring the man's last sentence even as she glanced at Oliver and frowned slightly at the look on his face.

"Anything either of you do while he's in that getup is dangerous," Carter informed her.

"I'll keep that in mind," she told him, but didn't back down, "is there anything else you can tell us?"

"I don't know that there's anything else to tell, unless you want to hear some old stories about your mom." He shrugged a little.

Her chest tightened at that and she nodded, "I do." She admitted, "but I guess that will have to wait."

Oliver shook his head a little. "Big Bird has a point. I'll go home and change and uh, drive back and get you if you want to stay for awhile."

Chloe frowned at that and she shook her head, "you don't have to do that, Oliver."

"It's all right," he told her, looking at her. "It's not a problem." He glanced at Carter warily, then back at Chloe before turning and heading for the door.

She held her breath and watched him go, then chewed on her bottom lip for a moment and turned back to look at Carter, "what can you tell me?"


	10. Chapter 10

  
  


Hours later found Oliver standing on the balcony of his penthouse suite, leaning on the railing as he stared out over Metropolis. He'd gone to get Chloe a couple hours before, and as far as he knew, she was asleep in her room.

He wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

Sure, Carter had answered some of their questions, but it had left him feeling even more bitter than he had already been feeling. His parents had known how dangerous it was to be dealing with people like Lionel Luthor and Genvieve and Edward Teague, but finding _Clark_ had mattered more to them than staying alive for his sake. Which just made him angrier at Clark for his lack of appreciation toward all the sacrifices that people had made for him, to help him, to help become the savior of the world, apparently.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, ignoring the tear that found its way down his cheek.

* * *

Chloe herself hadn't had much luck as far as being able to sleep went either. She had reached for the landline a couple of times to call her dad a couple of times, but had stopped herself. She wouldn't break his heart all over again just because she was curious and it wasn't like she could be honest with him about why her mom was in a coma now. There was no point in contacting him.

The stories Carter had told her, however had made her feel even more connected to her mom. The things she had done, her stubbornness and how she had pretty much followed Carter around telling him she _was_ going to help him even if he didn't want to go on a date with her, it reminded her of herself. And of everything she had done for Clark despite everything. She didn't regret any of it of course, but she wished she could share stories with her mom and learn if _she_ regretted it.

There were also some things she wondered about her mom's relationship with her dad and her feelings for him that she was trying hard to stop herself from questioning.

With a deep breath, she pushed herself up from the bed and quietly made her way down the hallway, she wasn't going to be able to sleep anyway so she might as well go find something to research to keep herself busy.

He had just finished off a half a bottle of whiskey when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. He forced himself to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, rubbing a hand over his face before taking another swig of the alcohol.

Just as she was making her way to the kitchen to get something to drink, she caught sight of a figure out in the balcony and stilled. Her eyes widened a little and then she squinted, letting out her breath when she realized it was him.

Slowly, she approached the balcony, frowning when she saw him drinking straight from the bottle, "Oliver?" She called, keeping some distance not to startle him.

He didn't turn around. "Yeah?"

Chloe chewed on her bottom lip and stepped closer to him, "I didn't realize you were awake."

"Me either," he told her, taking another drink. "Did I wake you?" He wasn't sure what he might have done _to_ wake her, but he didn't know.

"No, I couldn't sleep either," she admitted, eying the bottle he had in his hand then holding her hand out toward it.

Oliver pursed his lips, looking down at the bottle, then holding it out to her wordlessly.

She took the bottle, surprised at how light it was, then lifted it to her lips and took a sip of it. Than made a face as the bitter liquid burned her throat.

"Not your drink of choice," he commented, watching her.

"What is it?" She asked, pausing then sipping on it again.

"Whiskey," he told her with a slight shrug. He pushed himself away from the railing, wincing a little.

The second sip hadn't been so bad, but when she saw him wincing, she winced too, "how are you feeling?"

"Like I got thrown out a second story window, so I guess I'm on track with that at least." He reached out and took the bottle from her, taking another drink.

Her chest tightened and she nodded slightly, "why don't you sit down?"

A smile tugged his mouth upwards and he raised his eyebrows. "I'm not stumbling yet."

"Yeah, well, stumbling on a balcony doesn't sound like a good idea," she said, taking the bottle from him then gently taking his arm, "come on."

"You worry too much, Sidekick." He let her lead him inside the penthouse.

"You're drunk, so you really aren't seeing things clearly right now," she pointed out, closing and locking the balcony door once she followed him inside.

"I'm not _drunk_ ," he protested as he moved toward the couch.

"You had almost an entire bottle of whiskey, there is no way you're not at least a little drunk," she said, following him to the couch.

He frowned, dropping down onto the cushions and sighing as he laid his head back.

She bent a leg over the couch as she sat down and sipped on the bottle again then turned to look at him, "would you rather talk about it or ignore it completely for the night?" She asked as she watched him.

"Doesn't matter," he murmured, shutting his eyes.

"It does," Chloe told him, "because I don't want to upset you more than you already are."

Oliver was silent for a moment. "Did you learn anything about your mom?" His voice grew even softer.

She took another sip from the bottle and nodded, "yeah," she leaned back against the couch, "she is very stubborn, apparently."

He opened one eye, turning his head to look at her. "That can't be that shocking."

"I guess not," she agreed then shrugged a little, "but it was interesting to hear it from someone."

He reached out and carefully took the bottle from her, finishing it off and setting it down on the table.

"Hey," Chloe frowned and gave him a look.

Oliver gave her a lopsided smile, shrugging. "You don't like it anyway."

"I was still drinking it," she shrugged, "it's not so bad when you know what is coming."

"It's the things you don't see coming that are hard," he murmured, his smile fading.

"What is bothering you the most?" She whispered.

He leaned forward, rubbing his hands over his face and resting his elbows on his knees. "He has everything and he doesn't even want it."

"Clark?" She guessed, her face softening.

"How much will you hate me for saying yes?"

"I won't hate you regardless of what you say, Oliver." She told him quietly and sighed softly, "he doesn't have things as easy as it seems, but I do agree with you."

"It's just..." He rose to his feet and began to pace the floor. "All these people...people he never even _met_...they made all these sacrifices and did all this stuff to help be this great hero, and he hates it. He doesn't even want to be part of it. And all the people around him...he has all these people who would die for him, who keep his secret, who would do anything for them and he doesn't even appreciate it."

Her chest tightened as she watched him and nodded a little, "he's still... figuring out a lot of things on his own," she said quietly, "and I am _so_ sorry things happened to your parents because of Veritas and Lionel." She stood up too, "the only thing I can think of is that they thought they would be protecting you by protecting _him_."

"Maybe," he said, raking a hand through his hair. "Or maybe I was just more of an afterthought."

"Don't, Oliver." She shook her head, "don't do this to yourself."

He looked away, letting out a shuddering breath. "You should try and get some sleep."

"Listen to me," she told him, stepping closer, "this whole thing with Carter made me want to question my mom too, and I have been questioning her actions even before that, but there is no point to putting ourselves through this when no one will be able to tell us otherwise or to prove us right."

His eyes were glassy as he looked at her, sniffing involuntarily. He knew she was right, but letting it go wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"I know it's not easy," she whispered, searching his eyes as she stepped closer to him, "but you have very limited memories of your parents as is, I don't want you to taint those."

He forced himself to take a deep breath, shutting his eyes as he nodded. "I know."

She took a deep breath and reached for his hand. "You're an amazing person," she said quietly, "and you have a lot of us who would do anything to protect you too."

Oliver looked down at their hands for a moment, then stepped closer to her, enfolding her in his arms wordlessly. Chloe wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, holding him tight but carefully since she knew he was still sore and hurting from the drop. "Ditto that," he whispered, leaning his head against hers.

She smiled just slightly as that and leaned her cheek against his chest. Without thinking about it, he kissed the top of her head, sighing softly.

She stilled then relaxed a little, taking a deep breath before turning her head to look up at him, "why don't we find something to watch and just stick to the couch since I don't think either one of us will get any sleep."

"I like that plan," he said quietly, meeting her eyes and offering her a small smile.

"Okay," she smiled softly, "and maybe you should drink some water so you're not hungover tomorrow?"

"I'll even take a couple aspirin."

"Good," she smiled softly, "tell me where they are and I will go grab them for you."

"Bathroom cabinet. Second shelf, I think. You want some water, too?"

"Yeah," she nodded a little, "since you took away what I was drinking," she teased quietly.

Oliver smiled a little at that. "Saving you from a hangover. No reason for both of us to be miserable tomorrow."

"No reason for us to be miserable. Period." She pointed out, holding his gaze.

"See? This is why I need you around. Keep me in line."

Her face softened and she nodded a little, "anytime."

"Careful," he murmured. "I might just take you up on that..."

"I hope you do," she said, her expression more serious now, "because I meant what I said, Oliver."

"But when all of this is sorted out and it's safe...you'll be staying here in Metropolis." There was a hint of sadness in his voice, and in his eyes.

"Maybe," she told him, "and if I do stay here, you have an apartment here too and we can always get a ride with one of our fast friends if we want to see each other."

Oliver swallowed hard, nodding and dropping his gaze. "Yeah," he said softly, moving past her and toward the kitchen to get their water.

Chloe frowned and turned to look at him, watching him for a moment before making her way down the hall to get the aspirins. She had no idea what that had been or what he had expected from her, but it obviously wasn't the answer he got. She took a deep breath and shook her head slightly. Somehow, the thought of not being around him as often as they were now freaked her out too, she knew that for him it wasn't so much about her but probably about the company and having someone there who understood what he was going through.

For her... she had the feeling that the whole falling for heroes thing really ran in the family.

* * *

He woke up slowly, feeling slightly disoriented until he spotted the TV screen that had apparently gone blank with static after whatever they'd been watching the previous night had ended. His eyebrows furrowed a little and he lifted his head slowly, groaning very softly as pain shot through every bone in his body. He slowly laid his head back down. Right. Not moving was a great idea, he thought.

Chloe felt her hand moving first and slowly lifted her head, her neck protesting as she did, but when the weight over her lap shifted, she looked down. Blinking a couple of times to clear her vision, she saw Oliver laying back down on her lap and took a deep breath, "you okay?" She mumbled sleepily.

"If I never move again, I'll be great," he mumbled back.

She smiled a little and nodded, "okay," she closed her eyes and let her head drop back against the couch, "don't move."

"You can't possibly be comfortable like that."

"I can't feel much of my body right now," she admitted, shifting a little.

Oliver drew in a breath and reluctantly lifted his head off her lap. He wasn't sure how it had ended up there in the first place, but he was fairly certain it hadn't taken him long to pass out while they were watching whatever they'd been watching. He sat up slowly, groaning as his muscles burned with the effort.

"You didn't have to move," she told him, groaning quietly as she stretched her arms and legs in front of herself.

"Not feeling your body is almost as bad as feeling it the day after getting tossed out a window."

"I won't be sore in about ten minutes," she assured him, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Good." That would make one of them, at least. He rubbed his hand over his face and rose to his feet. 

"How are you feeling?" She asked, rolling her neck slowly.

"Sore." He tried to smile, but didn't quite manage it.

"But not hungover?"

"I can hold my liquor pretty well," he admitted.

"Maybe one day you'll have to show me how well," she said, looking up at him.

He paused. "Are you challenging me to a drinking contest?"

"Maybe?" She smiled a little, rubbing her hands over her face before getting up slowly and yawning.

"How about I start some coffee for you and I'll go take a shower." 

Chloe paused at that, her face falling a little but she nodded, "thanks."

"And maybe we'll talk about that drinking contest later."

She arched an eyebrow at that and watched him for a moment, cocking her head, "maybe we will," she said, unsure of how to respond to that.

Oliver headed into the kitchen, starting the coffee pot and putting in one of the more exotic blends that he had, then headed down the hall toward his bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would help ease the pain.

* * *

It was about fifteen minutes later when she made her way down the hallway, she was going into her room to change but paused when she saw Oliver in his room, she wanted to talk to him anyway, so she approached the door that was mostly open and knocked, "would you mind if I borrowed one of your cars?"

He turned, tugging his shirt down over his torso. "One of my cars?" he echoed.

"Wait," she frowned, stepping into the room, "what was that on your back?"

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "I don't know?"

"Lift your shirt." It wasn't a request.

He blinked at the command, and reluctantly lifted his shirt for her to see.

Her eyes widened at the large, deep purple and greenish bruises all over his back, "this looks horrible," she said, touching his skin gently with her fingertips and then it dawned on her, "you fell on your quiver..."

"Yeah." He nodded a little, glancing over his shoulder at her. "I'm all right."

"Is it too late to ice it?" She asked quietly, glancing up at him then lifting his shirt a little more to make sure there were no cuts.

"I don't know," he admitted. He hadn't taken a fall like that for a very long time.

"We should try to anyway, maybe I should go get you some hot and cold packs." She told him, lifting the front of his shirt to check for bruises on his stomach too and stilling when she realized that there were no bruises but he looked amazing.

Oliver looked down, and held his breath for a moment before looking up to meet her eyes.

She slowly and reluctantly let go of his shirt and held her breath too as she glanced up at him, her face hot, "I guess, it's just the back..."

He licked his lips unconsciously, nodding. "Yeah," he murmured.

Her stomach tightened a little and she nodded too, then looked away, wishing she could remember what she was saying before.

"We should get out of Metropolis," he said softly.

"Yeah," she agreed, although it took her a second to realize what he had said so she shook her head a little, "I was thinking of stopping by Smallville to get some things."

He hesitated. "What things?" he asked.

"My phone, mainly," she admitted, taking a deep breath as she focused on him once more.

He rubbed a hand over his face wearily. "Is that why you wanted to borrow a car?"

"Yeah," she nodded a little, only then remembering her request.

"All right. But I'd prefer if you let me come with you."

"You can," she chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, "but you don't have to, I'm sure sitting in a car for four hours won't help your back."

"I'll be all right," Oliver assured her. He'd rather be there to run interference if they, God forbid, ran into Davis Bloome.

"Okay," even though she didn't want to put him through that torture, she hadn't been expecting him to agree with this and not tag along, "I'll go change and then I'll be ready."

"All right." He watched her turn toward the door and chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment.

Chloe glanced at him over her shoulder before disappearing into the room across the hall and closing the door behind herself. She definitely had to stop herself from touching him like that again.


	11. Chapter 11

  
  


"You can just wait here," she told Oliver as she parked his car outside of a drugstore. They were still in Metropolis, but in the outskirts of it, she didn't want to run into anyone she knew and considering it was a Wednesday and just past ten in the morning, she didn't think that would be an issue _here_.

"Are you sure?" He looked hesitant, glancing out the window and toward the entrance of the store.

"I'll be fine," she told him, "just relax. Do you want anything else?"

Oliver leaned back against the seat, wincing a little. "No, I think I'll be all right for the trip."

She winced too then nodded a little, "okay, I won't be long." She promised before grabbing her purse and getting out of the car.

He blew out a breath, watching her go, even as his stomach knotted a little. He told himself he was being ridiculous. She would be in there for five minutes tops, and she'd be back and they'd be on their way. Still, he couldn't help feeling unsettled.

Chloe had to look around for a second before she found the section she'd been looking for. She picked up three different kinds of hot and cold packs, not sure which ones would cover his back better and then as she made her way over to the next isle to grab some pain killers to go with it, she bumped right into something _very_ solid.

"Oh. Sorry." The man's brown eyes widened a little and he took a step back, his hands resting on her arms to steady her. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she smiled, shifting the packages so she wouldn't drop them before looking up at the man, "sorry I wasn't paying--" she paused, her eyes widening slowly as she recognized him from her research almost instantly, "--attention."

He cocked his head to look at her curiously. "It's all right. I wasn't either."

She stared at him for a second then read the name on his uniform, her stomach clenching. Bloome. "Excuse me," she managed, her stomach tight as she walked around him and away from him as quickly as she could.

Frowning, he turned to watch her go, but didn't follow her.

Chloe checked out as quickly as possible, her heart beating fast, her hands shaking slightly as she made her way out of the store and into the car. She tossed everything by Oliver's feet, not even looking at him as she started the car and pulled away from the parking spot and into traffic a moment later.

He could tell by her reaction that something wasn't right. "What happened?" He sat up in the seat, his eyes narrowed as she drove.

"He was in there." She said finally as they got on the road to Smallville.

His heart began to beat a little faster. "He?"

Chloe glanced at him then focused on the road again, "Davis."

His eyes widened. " _What?_ "

"I bumped into him," she glanced at Oliver, "literally. I don't think he knew who I was but, I walked right into him and then I left."

He raked a hand through his hair, his heart beating more quickly now. "All right. We need to go see Clark after we get your phone."

"What?" She frowned, looking at him, "see Clark? Why?"

"To see what kind of progress he's making."

"But he will know we're here," she pointed out, looking over at him.

"I know. But if Davis is out walking around, I'm a little concerned about why Clark hasn't done anything about it yet."

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded a little, "we'll stop by the farm on our way out, hopefully he will be there."

"All right. The jet's fueled up and ready to go back when we are."

"I'm sorry I didn't grab you any painkillers," she said after a moment, "I meant to, but I just wanted to get out of there."

"You don't need to apologize, Chloe," he said quietly, reaching out and touching her arm. "I'm glad you got out."

Chloe took another deep breath then glanced at him, her chest tightening. She was still thrown by seeing the man they supposedly wanted dead, so she didn't even really realize she was going way above the speed limit, "he seemed normal."

Oliver nodded slightly, watching her with worried eyes. He wasn't surprised by her comment. "Hopefully Clark can split the two halves soon and he'll have a chance at a normal life."

"Does he know?" She asked, glancing at him again, "what he is?"

"Probably not at this point," he said quietly. "He was blacking out when Doomsday took over. At least in the beginning."

"So we have to split them before he starts blacking out?" Chloe pursed her lips, glancing at him again.

"To have a good chance of saving him from himself?" He glanced at her sideways. "That's my bet."

Chloe nodded slightly and remained quiet for a long moment, "what if Clark says he won't do it, Oliver?"

"You think he won't? With everything that's at stake?"

"I don't know if he believes it," she said, shaking her head, "I don't know. I asked him to tell me how things went when he spoke with Jor-El, but he hasn't emailed me."

"Maybe Jor-El wasn't helpful."

"Maybe so," she agreed then took a deep breath, focusing on the road for a moment. "But don't you think we should have a backup plan in case he doesn't come through?" She asked uncomfortably.

"I do. Sort of." He let out a breath, staring out the passenger side window for a few moments. "You're not going to like it."

"If you're planning on going after him on your own, forget it." She said firmly, her hands tightening around the steering wheel.

"Not on my own," he assured her, not looking over.

"What are you planning, Oliver?" Chloe asked tightly.

"If Clark won't do it, I'll split him with the Kryptonite. Then it's a matter of wrangling the Kryptonian side of him underground and burying him with nuclear waste." He let out a breath. "That's how they did it. Just...Clark did the wrangling part."

"And if Clark isn't there, who would do that? No one is as strong as he is." She pointed out.

"Then I'm going to have to work hard at making sure Clark _will_."

" _We_ are." She corrected him, looking over at him, "just because he came talk to you, this isn't on your shoulders, Oliver and I will not be left out of it."

He looked over at her, as well. "I'm not trying to leave you out," he said quietly. "I just have to make sure that you're safe, Chloe."

"Davis didn't kill her, did he? He killed Jimmy." She reminded him. "There is no need for you to protect me from him."

"But we've changed things," he told her, shaking his head. "Now we have no idea how things could play out. And I don't want to risk your life."

"But it's okay to risk yours?" She asked sharply, glancing over at him, a deep, angry frown on her face.

"Okay, that's not what I meant, either." He sighed softly, rubbing a hand over his face.

"Just to be clear," she said, looking back at the road, "if you're going after him, I'm coming with you."

"Absolutely _not_ ," he retorted.

"If I'm not there, you will not be there," she told him, "Jimmy is going to be safe, how can you be sure _you_ won't die in his place?" She asked sharply.

"Davis is the one who killed Jimmy, not Doomsday. Davis doesn't know me and has no reason to want me dead in the first place," he pointed out.

"But didn't you say that once they split, Doomsday will be physical too? How do you know _he_ \-- Wait a minute." She frowned, "what was Davis' reason to kill Jimmy?"

"Davis was in love with you. Future you." He sighed softly.

"And he killed Jimmy because I was in love with him?" Chloe asked.

"Basically. He was jealous. He wanted you to himself."

Chloe remained quiet for a moment, "was I ever interested in him?" She asked, because she didn't find the guy special when she saw him, of course she knew what he was but...

Oliver let out a breath. "Sort of?" His voice was soft. "It was complicated, Chloe. You were infected by Brainiac. There's really no telling how much was you acting out of that and how much was you having actual feelings for the guy."

She nodded slightly and chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, "but I'm not now. One more reason for me to go with you."

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. We don't know that Clark is going to refuse to do what has to be done anyway."

Chloe rolled her eyes and took a deep breath then drove in silence, she was going to have a back up plan for _his_ back up plan.

* * *

Oliver reached out and rang the bell at the Kents' house, waiting none-too-patiently for Clark to answer. Maybe he was going in with the wrong attitude, but if Davis Bloome was out walking around and people were disappearing, then to him it meant that Clark wasn't doing _anything._

She herself felt more than a little uncomfortable with the whole situation but she was glad she was there because she knew if it had been just the two of them it wouldn't have ended pretty. It might not even with her there, but at least she could stop them from killing each other. Maybe.

Clark opened the door a moment later and his eyes widened, "Chloe?"

Oliver regarded him warily, then glanced sideways at Chloe, remaining silent for the time being.

"Yeah," she tried for a smile, "can we come in?"

Clark looked at her for a moment then frowned at Oliver before stepping aside, "what happened? Did you find Lana?"

He couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at that, following her inside the house, his jaw already tightening.

Chloe took a deep breath but stopped herself from looking at Clark, "Lana left, Clark. It was her own choice."

"And no offense here, man, but we're kind of on a timeline," Oliver said, turning around.

"She could be in danger!" Clark frowned as he looked between them.

"She's okay," Chloe assured him. "Did you talk to Jor-El?"

He forced himself to take a deep breath, raising his eyebrows at Clark.

"I haven't had the time," Clark told her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Clark," Chloe exclaimed, "I told you it was important. You need to talk to him because we can't waste anymore time."

"Okay, seriously. I'm sorry that Lana took off. I am." Oliver took a step toward him. "But we are talking about the end of the _world_ here. Literally."

"You need to stop Davis now. Before it's too late." Chloe told him firmly.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone, Chloe. Especially someone who has done nothing wrong."

"We're not talking about hurting anyone. Davis needs to be split from his Kryptonian side before he starts killing people, Clark."

"And how do you know this will happen, Oliver? How do you even know he's Kryptonian?"

"Because a future version of myself showed up," Oliver informed him, not hesitating. "And he told me that we had a short amount of time to change a lot of things before it was too late."

Clark stared at him for a moment then turned to Chloe.

"It's true, Clark. How do you think I knew about Davis Bloome?" She asked, "please go to the fortress, see what you can find out, we'll wait here."

"Why would I make this up, Clark?" Oliver asked quietly.

Chloe took a step forward and held his gaze, "go, we'll wait for you." She promised.

Clark looked at Chloe for a moment then nodded slightly and sped out.

Oliver exhaled slowly, and glanced at Chloe, raising his eyebrows.

She let out her breath too and held his gaze, "hopefully he will come back soon with a good answer for us."

"Hopefully," he echoed quietly, nodding a little and glancing around the room.

"Why don't we sit?" She suggested, motioning to the couch, "it might be a while."

He drew in a breath and moved over to the sofa, sitting down slowly and leaning back against the cushions. It was definitely a step up from the car seats, he thought.

"Here," she said, giving him an extra pillow, "how are you feeling?"

"Thanks." He shifted, placing the pillow behind him and leaning back against it. "I'm all right." Ready to get out of Kansas as soon as possible.

"Do you want more advil?" She asked, sitting down next to him. She was more than anxious too, so focusing on helping him helped.

"I'm okay, Chloe," he said softly, turning his head to look at her.

Chloe took a deep, calming breath and nodded a little, watching him for another moment then looking away.

"Are _you_ okay?" He rested his hand on her arm.

"Yeah," she nodded slightly, "just don't like waiting."

"I know," he admitted with a small smile.

She looked at him once more, a little surprised, "you do?"

He nodded. "You get tense when you're waiting on something big."

"That easy to read, huh?" She said quietly, chewing on her bottom lip.

Oliver watched her. "I'm a perceptive guy," he said just as quietly.

Her chest tightened and she nodded slightly, looking at her lap, "I guess you are."

He was silent for a moment. "It's all gonna be all right, Chloe."

She glanced over at him and nodded a little. Maybe the end of the world wouldn't come and _that_ would be okay, but she knew that what was currently making her uncomfortable had nothing to do with it.

"Is something else bothering you?" he murmured, meeting her eyes.

Chloe held his gaze for a moment then shook her head, "no," she lied, "just... anxious."

He hesitantly moved his hand from her arm to her back in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."

She stilled a little and glanced at him, nodding, "hopefully, I know you're uncomfortable."

"I'm okay," he assured her, rubbing her back lightly.

Chloe shifted then reluctantly leaned against his touch, "I don't think he will do it, Oliver."

He sighed softly, chewing on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "He _has_ to."

She closed her eyes and looked away once more, suddenly feeling the urge to shift closer to him, touch him more than she should. Make him understand what she was trying to tell him.

As if sensing her thoughts, he shifted closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and gently pulling her closer. "And if he doesn't...we'll find another way."

Holding her breath, she let it out slowly and leaned into him before she could stop herself. "Promise me you will let me help if it comes down to it."

"If it comes down to it," he murmured.

Chloe opened her eyes and turned to look at him, "promise you won't go after him on your own."

"I promise," he said quietly, meeting her eyes.

She held his gaze, her stomach in knots even as her heart skipped a beat, the first because of his words and the second because of his closeness.

Oliver searched her eyes, unable to look away from her. He lifted his free hand to her cheek, gently brushing some hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.

Her eyes widened slightly as she held his gaze, leaning slightly into his touch for a second before she sat up.

"Sorry," he whispered, swallowing hard. "Sorry."

Chloe blinked a few times and shook her head a little, swallowing hard as she looked away, "why are you apologizing?"

"For making you uncomfortable." He looked down for a moment, then up at her again.

"You didn't," she whispered, glancing at him again.

"No?" Oliver ducked his head just a little, enough to catch her eyes.

"No," she said again, holding his gaze. She was sure he hadn't meant that in any way other than comforting and friendly so she didn't want him to feel bad about it.

"Good," he murmured.

Nodding slightly, she held his gaze for a second longer then looked away again.

Oliver drew in a breath and let it out slowly, looking toward the door when it opened.

Chloe blinked and stood up a moment later, turning to look at Clark as he walked though the door, "what did he say?"

Clark shook his head slowly, "he said it isn't time. Whatever you have been told," he said to Oliver, "Jor-El told me I shouldn't be dealing with it yet."

"Clark, you can't _not_ deal with it. We're talking about the lives of hundreds of people. Everyone in Metropolis."

"He told me it isn't time."

"It doesn't matter if it isn't time, Clark. The sooner we stop him, the safer everyone will be," Chloe said firmly.

Oliver could tell by the stubborn look on Clark's face that he wasn't going to budge. "Come on, Chloe. We're wasting our time, as per usual. Clark's a little too self-involved to give a damn about the impending apocalypse." He moved past Clark and headed for the door.

"You can't change things, Oliver," Clark told him firmly, "there will be consequences."

"Yeah, there will be. The difference between you and I, Clark, is that I'm not willing to live with what I _know_ is going to happen. But more power to you for sticking your head in the sand--again." He yanked the door open and headed onto the porch.

Chloe took a deep breath and shook her head as she looked at Clark, "I was really hoping you would listen," she told him before following Oliver out of the house.

"Chloe, wait," Clark called, holding the door open, "stay here, it's dangerous to be around him."

She paused and turned to look at him, "it's even more dangerous not to do anything about this. I'm not sitting back and pretending I don't know anything, Clark. I can't."

By the time Chloe reached the car, Oliver was standing there, talking quietly with Bart. He turned to look at her, his chest tightening.

"Come on," Chloe said as she unlocked the car and got into the driver seat once more, not in the least surprised to see Bart there already.

Oliver looked at Bart and then leaned down to the driver's side window, regret in his eyes. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

She stilled and looked at him for a moment, her chest tightening, "what? Why?"

Bart rounded the car, picked her up and second later, they were gone.

Oliver shut his eyes. 

He hoped he lived long enough to try and convince her to forgive him.


	12. Chapter 12

Oliver forced himself to take a deep breath as he limped into his penthouse suite in Star City many long hours later. Half of him expected to find that she had gone, that Clark had come and gotten her. The other half expected to find her waiting impatiently inside, probably pacing back and forth and drinking a lot of coffee.

He wasn't, however, surprised when he spotted her in his office area, messing with the communicators with a frustrated look on her face.

A small smile touched his lips despite his pain and exhaustion. There was a long cut down the side of his face, and he was fairly certain it was still bleeding.

The others were all thankfully all right--nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes. They would heal within a few hours due to their meta abilities.

Separating Davis Bloome from his evil alter ego had been relatively easy--the black Kryptonite had worked instantly, and while Davis had been bewildered, he'd been unhurt and with any luck, he would go on to live a normal life free of murderous impulses.

Oliver hoped so anyway.

And Doomsday was buried under a ton of nuclear waste thanks to LuthorCorp's facilities.

She stilled completely when she saw him, her heart skipping a beat as she fought both the urge to throw her arms around him and to slap him at the same time.

He simply gazed at her for a moment, silent. Then he took a single step forward. "Before you start yelling, everyone's fine."

Her jaw clenched at that, "you're bleeding."

"It's a superficial wound," he assured her, not moving any closer.

She was silent for a moment longer, "is he gone?"

"They're split. Doomsday is underground. Davis was confused but unharmed." His voice was soft.

"Good." She said firmly. "Can Bart take me home now?"

Oliver swallowed hard on that as it dawned on him she might _not_ forgive him. "Chloe, can we talk first? Please?"

"What do you want to talk about, Oliver?" She asked, her expression was blank but her tone was sharp, "about the fact that you completely broke the promise you made me when we were driving to Smallville?" Her chest was tight and she had to swallow the lump on her throat before she could continue, "or about the fact that you obviously _don't_ trust me?"

"I trust you with my life," he told her, shaking his head and taking another small step towards her. "That's not what this was about."

Her jaw clenched tighter when he stepped closer to her, "then what was it about? And don't give me some bullshit about keeping me alive because _you_ could have died just as much as I could have, Oliver!" She said angrily.

His chest tightened at the anger in her voice, in her eyes. "I made a promise and I had to keep it," he said softly.

"You made a promise to me and you broke it, what would be one more to your list?" She asked tightly.

"I didn't go after him alone," he pointed out, raising his eyebrows.

"No." She told him, "but you left me out of it."

Oliver was silent for a moment, looking down at the floor, and then back up at her. "Chloe, there's something I haven't told you."

"Oh I'm sure there is a lot more than _something_ you haven't told me." She said bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest.

His jaw tightened at that and he met her eyes. "I get that you're pissed at me. This whole situation has been extremely bizarre, even for me. But all I've been trying to do is what I thought was best, all right? I never set out to intentionally _hurt_ you, or anyone else, Chloe."

"That's the thing, Oliver, I'm freaked out about all the things that happened too and I _know_ you haven't been dealing with it well and I have been doing my best to _help_ you because I thought we were in this together but then, all of the sudden you decide you know best and you send me halfway across the country because you don't want me _interfering_ with _your_ plans!"

"Interfering?" he echoed in disbelief. "That was hardly why I sent you back here to Star City!"

"Is it?" She demanded, taking a step forward, "because this was _your_ plan, keeping me 'safe' here. And you knew I wouldn't agree to it, that I would want to help and go in after him with you, so instead of talking to me about it, you just _did_ what you thought was best, regardless of my opinion."

"I wasn't worried about you interfering, Chloe! And yeah, I made the best decision I could in the situation because I wasn't willing to risk your life! And maybe you hate that, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant keeping you _alive_." He shook his head, his own eyes filled with anger. "You didn't see him, Chloe. I did."

"You seem to care far too much about _my_ life and not enough about _yours_ , Oliver. So she died in the future, in a completely different situation and by a completely different killer! And you're the one with all the answers to begin with, what if you had died and I had stayed alive? What good would that do!? You're the one the world needs, not me." She argued stubbornly.

"Because maybe you're the one that _I_ need," he said sharply, glaring at her.

"Clearly you _don't_." She said just as sharply, lifting her chin slightly as she held his gaze.

"Why the hell would I be so damn adamant about keeping you safe if I didn't?" he demanded, stepping closer to her, his jaw tight.

"Because you're a hero, it's what you do." She said through clenched teeth.

"Is that what you really think?" A short, humorless chuckle escaped him. "Because I assure you my reasons were completely _selfish_."

"Just say it, Oliver." Chloe said sharply, dropping her hands to her sides even though they remained curled into fists, "what do you expect me to believe in now?"

He stepped closer to her, reaching out and sliding his arms around her waist, hauling her up against him and staring at her for a moment before dipping his head and capturing her mouth with his own.

Her eyes widened for a second then closed as she started to kiss him back, her heart beating even faster as a shot of electricity ran through her, but it only took her a moment to lift her hands to his arms and push him away as much as she could considering her knees were suddenly weak. "What the hell do you _think_ you're doing?" She demanded breathlessly.

"I had to keep you safe because I _needed_ you to be safe, Chloe," he whispered, his voice ragged. "And it had nothing to do with me being Green Arrow and everything to do with me being Oliver Queen and you being Chloe Sullivan."

Chloe swallowed hard, her hands still on his arms since he hadn't let go of her, something she was secretly grateful for, "what about it?" She asked, her voice quieter now.

"Don't you get it?" He swallowed hard, too. " _I_ need _you_."

"Why, Oliver?" She studied him for a moment, her chest tight, "because he told you so?"

"Maybe he helped me realize it," he admitted, gazing at her intently. "But I feel it, Chloe. It scares the hell out of me, but I feel it."

"What did he _say_ to you?" She pushed, feeling nervous now for completely different reasons.

He shut his eyes for a moment, but didn't let her go. "He was in love with her," he told her quietly.

She looked down and shifted, taking a deep breath as she tried to pull away from him a little more this time. "Just because he said that it doesn't mean..."

His arms remained around her. "There's no such thing as a coincidence," he whispered. "Our mothers were best friends. Maybe this is what's _supposed_ to happen."

"Just because you think you're supposed to feel a certain way, it doesn't mean you do." She whispered but her voice was firm as she turned to look at him once more. She'd been terrified that he wasn't going to come back, terrified that she wouldn't see him again, hug him again and terrified that she would never know what it would be like to kiss him. But now that he was telling her all these things, even though she'd been wishing he would look at her this way, she couldn't help but wonder if he meant them for himself or if he was just overwhelmed with everything else they had discovered. With what he had been told would be his destiny.

"But what if it's because I _do_ feel it?" he asked quietly, lifting his hand to her cheek and gazing at her intently. "Chloe, when he told me that you'd died...I can't explain it, but even before he told me they were together the thought...it hurt to breathe." He shook his head a little.

Chloe held her breath and her eyes teared up slightly as she looked down and leaned slightly into his touch, "we're already different people than they were."

"I know," he whispered, his chest tightening as he shifted a little closer to her once more. "And that's okay. I mean, we're _us_."

She took a deep breath and turned her head to look up at him once more, her hands still on his upper arms, but her fingers squeezed his muscles slightly as her heart skipped a beat.

His expression softened just a little and he kissed her forehead softly, then the tip of her nose.

Chloe closed her eyes then turned her head up, hesitating for a second before brushing her lips against his.

He kissed her back without hesitation, his hand gently tangling in her hair, his fingers gliding against the back of her neck.

She shivered slightly at his touch and moved closer to him as she relaxed slightly into the kiss, her grip on his arms tightening, her head spinning.

Oliver tugged her closer to him, backing up so he was sitting down on the sofa, pulling her onto his lap.

Chloe gasped a little as she found herself sitting on his lap and broke the kiss, looking down at him a little breathless.

"God, you're beautiful," he whispered, staring at her, his eyes darker than usual. "Do you know that?"

She swallowed hard and shook her head a little before she could stop herself, she still wasn't sure what was going on, she wasn't even sure if she was awake.

His expression shifted a little and he touched her face again, brushing his nose over hers. "Well, you are," he murmured.

"Are you sure he's gone and that part is over?" she asked, pulling back just enough to look at him.

"I'm sure, Chloe." His voice was soft. "Bart's taking the night off tonight, and he'll go back to looking for the crystal to keep Zod's army from showing up. AC and Dinah and Vic will be helping him."

"We can help him too," she said, sitting up but not moving from his lap.

"We will," he said sincerely. "Everyone's going to be on this one."

"Good," she told him then took a deep breath and arched her eyebrows, "because I'm still mad at you."

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling even as he nodded. "Noted."

She looked at him for a long moment then took a deep breath and hooked her finger under his chin, lifting his head a little, "you're still bleeding."

He leaned into her touch easily. "I should probably take a shower," he admitted.

"Yeah," she agreed quietly, "and tell me about what happened, and considering your back, you're probably in a lot more pain now."

"A little. It's not unbearable, though," he assured her, cupping her cheek once more and gently rubbing his thumb over her skin. "So how about I shower, and I'll tell you all the details while I'm making us something to eat?" He tucked some hair behind her ear.

"How about you shower while I order us something to eat and you can tell me while we're eating?" She suggested, leaning into his touch a little. She wasn't going to let him stand anymore than he had to.

He smiled at that, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I think that'd be great, too."

Her chest tightened and she kissed the corner of his mouth before pulling away and standing up. As much as she wanted to stay there and just keep on kissing him, she wanted to make sure he was in as little pain as he could be.

He rose to his feet, as well, gazing at her intently, relief washing over him. Doomsday wasn't a threat anymore which meant Chloe was out of immediate danger, and so was everyone else in Metropolis. It felt like a weight had been lifted off him. "There's some of that fancy coffee in the kitchen. A few different kinds. You know, if you're interested," he teased lightly.

"I already found them," she informed him, arching her eyebrows and smiling a little, "any food preferences?"

He grinned involuntarily, liking the idea that she had felt comfortable enough to ransack his kitchen. "Whatever sounds good. I'm not picky." He winked at her.

"Okay.” She nodded a little, her heart skipping a beat at the grin on his face, she hadn't seen him looking so... relaxed since, well probably ever. Definitely not since he had kidnapped her from her own apartment and had dragged her across the world. "I'll find something."

"All right." He couldn't resist pressing one more kiss against her forehead before he rubbed a hand over his face, heading down the hallway toward the master bathroom.

Chloe took a deep breath as she watched him go then made her way to the kitchen and to the stack of menus he had there. Her head was still spinning and she was still dying to know what had happened with Doomsday, but also, she was trying to process what had just happened between the two of them. Because she had been wanting to kiss him for a while now and she never in a million years thought he could possibly be interested in her like that and then to find out the other them had been together too... it was a lot to process.

* * * 

Twenty minutes later, Oliver was making his way out of the bathroom, hair still wet from the shower and he was limping a little. He sniffed the air, grinning a little when he recognized the unmistakable scent of Chinese food. Perfect, he thought, heading into the kitchen and finding Chloe setting the little table. For a moment he just paused in the entrance, watching her. If he wasn't mistaken, she looked a little more relaxed than he'd seen her in awhile.

Chloe felt eyes on her and lifted her head, smiling a little, she paused and turned to face him, "good timing," she told him, arching her eyebrows and holding her breath slightly when she realized he was still wet from the shower.

"Naturally." He smirked a little, stepping into the kitchen and moving over to where the boxes of food were. "Smells great. Is this from the little place on the corner?"

"I guess so? It was the first Chinese menu you had there and I figured it'd be better than pizza." She pursed her lips together and shrugged a little, "we don't have to eat here though if you will be more comfortable on the couch."

"This is fine," he assured her, pulling one of the chairs out and motioning her to it.

Chloe arched her eyebrows slightly, surprised by the action but took the seat and nodded a little, "so what happened?" She asked, turning to look at him.

Oliver drew in a breath and sat down at the table across from her. "Thanks to Bart we were able to find Davis pretty quickly. He was on a break from work," he began, dishing some food out and onto his plate and then taking a drink of his water. "So Bart grabbed him and brought him to the docks."

She didn't reach for the food yet, wanting to hear more first, "but I thought you said he was too strong for you guys, that's why you needed Clark."

"That was the assumption. But...future me hadn't done a very good job at trying to stop Davis _or_ Doomsday. By the time everything happened, the guy was at full strength. I think because we stopped him early, he wasn't as powerful," he told her.

"So you separated them like you had planned and what did you do with the monster?" She asked, searching his eyes.

"We buried him under a huge pile of nuclear waste," he told her. "About ten miles underground. Aka LuthorCorp."

Her eyes widened a little and Chloe nodded, pursing her lips together, "good."

"Thanks to Bart and AC, getting him down there wasn't too hard," he admitted.

"Is that what... future you said we should do?" She asked, arching her eyebrows slightly.

"That's what they did, yeah. Just...with Clark's help instead of AC's."

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded slightly, "and Davis, he... won't kill anyone now?"

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "I don't know for sure. But that's what we're hoping. But I put a tracker on him just in case."

"Good," she nodded once more and sat back against her chair, "and no one got hurt?" She knew he had told her as much but considering other Oliver had come back from the future to warn them about this, she wanted to make sure.

"Just scrapes and bruises. Nothing major," he assured her again.

She watched him for a moment longer then finally reached for the food and spooned some on her plate, "is there anything _else_ he told you that you haven't told me?"

He winced at her accusatory tone. He took a sip of his water and sighed softly. "I wasn't sure how well you'd react to the news about our other selves being involved," he admitted very quietly.

Chloe took another deep breath and shrugged a little, "I still don't know how I feel about that." She admitted, her voice quieter now.

Oliver swallowed hard and looked down at his plate. "Oh."

She kept her on gaze directed at her plate as she moved some fried rice around with her fork, "how can you be sure it didn't influence your decision?"

"I didn't say it didn't," he said quietly. "Everything we learn, everything we hear influences the things we do on a daily basis, Chloe. It just opened my eyes to something I hadn't seen as a possibility and..." He drew in a breath. "We've been spending all this time together now for weeks and I just _feel_ it. It wasn't a decision."

Her chest tightened and she took a deep breath, glancing at him, "I feel it too," she admitted quietly.

He looked up quickly. "You do?"

"Yeah," she shrugged a little, "for, I don't know, a few days I guess. We've been getting... closer."

"Yeah, we have," he agreed softly, watching her, his heart beating a little faster.

Chloe sat back against her chair once more and looked over at him, "I guess we need to figure out the rest ourselves."

Oliver reached across the table and covered her hand with his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I'd like that," he whispered.

Her heart skipped a beat but she smiled a little and turned her hand in his before nodding slightly, "yeah, me too." As terrifying as it was, apparently, this was where they were supposed to be headed anyway.


	13. Chapter 13

  
  


Chloe had just finished up an article for the Smallville Ledger when she heard a car pulling up to the Talon. It was late at night so she sat up and frowned slightly, listening for a moment but when she didn't hear anything else, she went back to typing her email to the editor. She'd been writing freelance articles for smaller papers here and there since she was still blacklisted at the Planet and no one else really wanted to hire her. At least the Ledger had been giving her enough work to keep her busy when Oliver was in Star City and there wasn't much to do as far as missions for the team.

With a deep breath breath, she stretched her arms above her head and stood up once the email had been sent then walked over to the coffee table and picked up her phone, frowning slightly. It was past midnight in California and while Oliver could still be out on patrol, she hadn't really talked to him since this morning, which was very unusual for him. In the six months they had been dating, he always called her either before or after going out for the night.

Usually both.

Frowning slightly, she made her way back to the laptop and connected to the Queen Industries satellite to check on the GPS attached to his costume. At least it should tell he whether he was home already or not.

Oliver stood on her doorstep with a bouquet of tulips in his arms. He hadn't seen her in nearly two weeks because of his schedule at Queen Industries and on a whim he'd called his pilot that morning and asked the man to fly him to Kansas. He'd also given him a few days off after they'd landed since he wasn't in a rush to go back to Star City. Dinah and AC were patrolling while he was away, and if his suspicions were correct, they were also dating. He figured they could use a little time without him around, as well. He reached out and knocked softly, his heart beating a little more quickly in his chest as he waited.

Chloe stilled and held her breath, frowning as she eyed the door for a moment. She hadn't heard anything else so whoever this was had to had the keys to the Talon to get in. Grabbing her phone once more, she unlocked the door and opened it a moment later, her eyes widening and her expression softening even as she looked confused, "Ollie?"

He flashed her his best charming smile. "Hey, Gorgeous." He leaned down and brushed a kiss against her cheek even as he handed her the flowers.

She took the flower and smiled, shaking her head a little, "what are you doing here?" She grinned slightly, "not that I'm complaining..."

"Well, I could hardly stand it anymore," he informed her, raising his eyebrows.

"It has been a long time," she agreed, shifting the flowers to her arm then reaching for his hand in her free one and pulling him into the apartment.

He followed her without hesitation, reaching back and shutting the door behind them and turning the locks before facing her once more. "I've missed you."

She set the flowers on the counter as he locked the door then turned to look at him again too, stepping closer and wrapping her arms around his neck, "missed you too," she said easily, holding his gaze.

Oliver smiled, dipping his head and kissing her softly on the mouth, his arms sliding around her waist as he pulled her closer.

Chloe kissed him back instantly, pulling him closer to her and smiling against his lips. Two weeks were definitely too long to go without seeing him but she knew that with his jobs, both of them, he couldn't really just stay there.

When the kiss ended, he leaned his forehead against hers. "So I've been thinking." His voice was soft.

"Then I'm obviously not trying hard enough," she teased, smirking a little as she slid her fingers into his hair.

He chuckled at that, sliding his hand just beneath her shirt. "Oh, we'll get to that very soon," he promised, kissing the corner of her mouth.

"What have you been thinking about?" She asked, shivering a little and brushing her nose against his as she stood on her tiptoes to be as close to him as she could.

Oliver picked her up and set her on the counter beside the flowers she'd set down, wanting them to be on eye level with one another. He rested his hands on either side of her. "I don't know how much longer this long distance thing is going to work," he said seriously, searching her eyes. "Two weeks is _way_ too long to go without seeing you. It's driving me crazy."

"Oh." She frowned slightly at his choice of words, "it is a long time, but I know you have been busy..."

"I have," he admitted, watching her closely. "But you're too important to me and I don't want _us_ to take a backseat to work."

Chloe relaxed a little at that and nodded, cupping his cheek in her hand, "I don't want that either," she agreed, "but sometimes with the night job, we will have to."

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. "But not to the day one," he said softly, looking at her once more. "Which is what I've been thinking about."

She brushed her thumb softly over his chin and nodded, "what solution did you come up with?"

"What would you say if I asked you to come to California with me?" He gazed at her.

Pausing, she arched her eyebrows slowly and searched his eyes, "for how long?"

Oliver raised his eyebrows, as well. "I was kind of thinking...indefinitely," he admitted.

"Oh," her eyes widened at that, "you mean _move_ to California?"

"Yeah," he said softly, his thumb rubbing her hip lightly. "If it's too much at once, you could just come for a while. Like a test run."

She smiled a little and shook her head, "I don't think it would be," she admitted quietly, holding her breath.

He couldn't help but smile back, relaxing. "No?"

"No?" She said hesitantly, shrugging a little, "I think we have both been torturing ourselves for a while now."

Oliver exhaled, grinning brightly. "Oh, thank God. I was afraid you'd say no. But for the record, I would've relocated here if I'd had to."

Chloe shook her head a little and wrapped her arms around his neck once more, "why? I can do my job from anywhere and your company is based in Star City."

"Because you're worth it," he whispered, brushing his nose over hers.

She smiled and brushed her lips against his, "well, so are you."

His smile brightened even more and he kissed her back eagerly. "And if you're interested...I do happen to know the current editor of the Star City Register," he murmured against her mouth.

"You do?" She asked, arching her eyebrows and leaning in, brushing her lips against his, "isn't that convenient?"

"Isn't it?" He agreed, nodding a little and nibbling on her lower lip.

Chloe wrapped her legs around him and pulled him to her, "extremely, you should have used it as a way to convince me to make the move."

"But then I'd always have wondered if you were moving because you wanted the job or you wanted me," he teased, dropping his head and pressing a kiss to her throat. "And now I know the answer."

"Well, clearly my decision is solely based on the job opportunity," she told him, shivering slightly as she let her head drop back, sliding her hands down his back and inside his shirt.

"Mmhmm. I'm convinced," he murmured, sliding a hand beneath her shirt as well.

"Strictly business, of course," she told him, turning her head and running her tongue over his ear.

He shuddered a little, nodding solemnly. "Of course." He reached down and grasped the bottom of her shirt, tugging it up and over her head.

Chloe pulled back and lifted her arms for him before reaching for his shirt and discarding it too, "I'm really glad you came."

"Because of the business venture?" His eyes glittered with amusement as he slid his arms around her.

"Mhmm," she teased, wrapping her arms around his neck once more and shifting to the very edge of the counter so her body was pressed against his, "because you came to kidnap me again."

Oliver grinned, kissing the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, but this time is different," he informed her.

"Does it still count as kidnapping when it's _not_ against my will?" She asked, brushing her lips against his.

"I don't think so," he said, shaking his head.

"It'd be sexier if it could," she told him, lowering her voice and grinning slowly.

He smirked at that. "Consensual kidnapping. That _does_ have a sexy ring to it..."

Chloe pulled her head back and looked at him, nodding slightly, "doesn't it? We should use it."

"I'm going to kidnap you and take you to bed right now. Is that okay with you?" He grinned at her, picking her up easily.

"I'm wondering what is taking you so long, you have been here for what, ten minutes now and I'm still mostly dressed," she grinned, leaning into him, her arms and legs locked around him, "that has to be a record."

"The record this time will be the amount of time I keep you _undressed_ ," he informed her with a wink, carrying her toward the bedroom.

She grinned brightly and kissed him quickly, "I like the sound of _that_."

"I aim to please," he murmured, laying her down on the bed. "Over and over...and over again." He kissed her collarbone.

Chloe closed her eyes and ran her hands down his bare back, pulling him to lay on top of her, "and you always do."

"I'll always do my very best," he said sincerely, lifting his head to look at her.

She held his gaze and lifted her hand to cup his cheek once more, "you are the very best."

His expression softened at that and he dipped his head to kiss her softly. "Ditto, Watchtower."

Her fingers slid to the back of his head and she cupped his head then kissed him deeply, wrapping her other arm tightly around his back and pulling him to her.

He returned the kiss, relaxing completely--something he'd never been able to do with any other woman. But Chloe Sullivan wasn't just any other woman. She was his other half. And as long as they were together, they'd be okay.


End file.
